Cipher's Reign
by SkyeHendersen
Summary: When Stanford Pines makes the deal with Bill Cipher to let him into his mind and get the formula to spread Weirdmageddon the world goes to hell and Ford is now a personal puppet to Bill. Now Stanley has Dipper and Mabel and are trying to get Ford back, but the problem is Bill wants them to because he wants Pine Tree to be his next puppet!
1. Chapter 1: The Spread of Weirdmageddon

**Chapter 1: The Spread of Weirdmageddon**

Once Bill Cipher shook Stanford Pines' hand, everything was over.

Bill entered his mind and took the formula needed to break through the barrier that contained all the weirdness of Weirdmageddon. When he got what he needed he stood up while still in Ford's body, at this point possessing him.

"Well, that was interesting! Now I can finally take my reign global!" the voice coming out of Ford Pines' mouth wasn't his own, but Bill's shrill tone. "As I had made a deal with Fordsy here, I'll let the rest of you Pines live…" The eyes that were Ford's were no longer his, but a yellow in color with a snakelike slit of a pupil. Now his eyes turned black with a yellow pupil. "Now, I suggest you leave before I change my mind!" Bill's voice echoed throughout the room as the building that was a giant pyramid started shaking, debris falling from overhead.

"But… Great Uncle Ford!" Dipper cried out, just barely dodging a huge chunk of rock.

Stan couldn't believe it… right until the end he argued with his twin brother. Right until the end Ford was being stubborn. And now… The End is happening.

"C'mon kids!" Stan shouted as he grabbed for both Mabel and Dipper's arms. "We... we need to go…!" he started running, the kids running with him.

"But… everything we did…!" Mabel was saying through her tears. "We did all of that to get Grunkle Ford and we're leaving him!"

"She's right, Grunkle Stan… we need to get Great Uncle Fo-" Dipper went to chip in but Stan cut him off with a furious tone as he suddenly stopped to face them.

"NO!" his scream was filled with anger, both the children jumped. "Ford made his choice! He said this was the only way to keep you kids safe! And I am going to make sure his sacrifice will not be in vain!" He kneeled down and put his left hand on Dipper's right shoulder and his right hand on Mabel's left shoulder. "You two are my only family left that I love and care about… I _will protect you_! I will get us through this somehow… Ford wanted you two safe and I will make damn sure I do!"

Both Dipper and Mabel gave their great uncle wide brown eyes, brimmed with tears. They both gave Stan a hug, and their uncle returned it wholeheartedly.

The pyramid shook violently again as Bill laughed manically. "I won! I have finally won! Ahahaha!" His laugh was high and shrill, and with each minute the shakes grew stronger and stronger.

Stan had led the kids out and they were now running though the wasteland that was once Gravity Falls. He glanced up at the sky as they ran, seeing the pyramid rise. The sky flashed like lightning, a thunderous clap followed. The pyramid broke through the barrier, the sky seemingly shattered in a ripple of a rainbow of colors. Bill's cackle filled the air itself as the pyramid grew smaller as it was going into the distance.

"Hurry kids, we need to get to the Shack!" Stan cried out. With a nod the children followed him to wear the Shack had fallen during its battle with Bill.

They entered the Shack through the front door, but everything was sideways. Whatever pictures were on the wall were now fallen and laying on the opposite wall that was now the floor. Cracks crawled over everything… splitting the wooden doorframes and walls. The Mystery Shack was no more… it was officially dead.

"Kids… I want you to pack whatever stuff you absolutely need!" Stan ordered. "I'm talking clothes, food, medicine, and toiletries!" He glances around, thinking what he needs to take himself. "Even… pictures. Whatever pictures you can find and you guys like… take it with you." He then walks away toward where his room was.

Stan opened the door where it opened to its side. He crawls in and sees everything was tipped and broken. The first thing he did was find a large suitcase and set it on the ground. Stan then found his pictures askew everywhere. There was a picture of himself and the twins at the lake fishing… then he found the picture of just the twins. He packed those immediately, a sad smile on his face. Will they ever have this kind of happiness again?

After packing the pictures Stan began putting clothes in the suitcase. It felt like he was running away again to start a new life. He had done that too many times to count. As he dug through the remains of his closet he found a small shoebox that he had forgotten he had put there. He opens it and see the pictures of himself and Ford as children, around Mabel and Dipper's age, standing in the boat they had found and were trying to rebuild, the _Stan-o War_. He puts that with his suitcase too.

He then gets a separate suitcase and goes to his safe. There he had his ten guns he owned that he had mentioned to Mabel he had. Over the years with the oddities of Gravity Falls Stan had bought and gathered guns, which was hard to do with his criminal record. He owned a few pistols, a few hunting rifles, a flare fun, and a couple of magnums. He had a lot of ammo as well as whenever he saw a decent price on them he just bought them and stocked up.

Stan had actually hoped that he would never have hold a gun in his hand to pull the trigger. Now with these demons running around thanks to Bill Cipher, Stan had to use them. He needed to protect the kids, and he most likely will have to teach them how to use them.

 _It's all for self-defense, Stanley._ He thought to himself. He had no idea what he would do if those children got killed on his watch. He'd probably take one of the guns and shoot himself in the head if it had come to that.

He exits the room, the twins were waiting for him each having two suitcases, Mabel's pet pig Waddles sitting next to them. He gestures to them it was time to go and they all leave the Shack for the last time.

The walk to where the Shack used to be before turning it into a giant fighting robot seemed long and slow. Once they were there Stan's heart dropped seeing the giant hole in the ground where his home and business was for the past 30 years.

It seemed that it was the thing that finally made it sink in for Stan…

Everything was over.

Stan found the RV that he took with the kids to prank the other Oregon tourist traps and piled them all on. He had the keys in his suit jacket and started the RV with ease. With his heart heavy, he said a mental goodbye to his home and began to drive away.

Weirdmageddon was spreading… and the first stop Stan was making was to Piedmont, California to pick up the kids' parents.

He floored on the gas, passing the sign that read, " _Now Leaving Gravity Falls! Come Visit Again Soon!"_


	2. Chapter 2: When Time Flies

**Chapter 2: When Time Flies**

A year and a half had passed since that day, and every night Stan had nightmares about it.

The nightmares always include the family and Bill Cipher. Bill had taken over Ford's body and in these nightmares Bill would use the body of Ford to kill the rest of the Pines. Once it was Dipper being killed. Another night was Mabel. Sometimes both were killed, or it was just Stan.

Stan shook his head from the seat he laid on, his back sore. He didn't sleep on a bed, the twins shared the bed in the tiny bedroom that was in the RV. He gets up with a grunt and opens the curtain of the window, the light streaming in despite it being dim making his eyes squint. The sky was a mixture of orange and brown, the clouds looking a heavy black. Looked like a typical Armageddon sky you see in the movies. Stan shuts the curtain.

He walks into the tiny room and sees both Mabel and Dipper sleeping on the bed, Waddles at their feet. In their sleep they held tightly to each other's hand, refusing to let go. They were covered by a thick knitted blanket that Mabel had made, both wearing thick sweaters as it was cold inside the RV. Even Waddles was wearing a sweater.

That was the first thing Stan did as they had drove to California when they left Gravity Falls… he went to the nearest craft store and had Mabel and Dipper grab every bit of yarn, fabric, needles and thread that they could all carry. The craft store was empty of course, no one went to those during the apocalypse, everyone always goes for food and weapons. As soon as they were safe in the RV that Stan had been guarding they had continued to Piedmont while Mabel began knitting blankets, sweaters, hats, scarves, and mittens.

Stan even had stopped by a bookstore for Dipper. Dipper grabbed whatever books he wanted, including many blank journals to document their travels. The books Dipper grabbed were all history and science, a few math, and a couple of mystery novels. You'd think by this point the kid would be sick of mystery… Even Mabel grabbed some books for herself. Dipper had asked if Stan wanted anything, but Stan had shaken his no. Soon they were back to traveling.

However…

When they had entered Piedmont, California it was set ablaze and people were crashing cars trying to escape the demons that had been flooding the streets. Stan had maneuvered the best he could, following Dipper's instructions on how to get the twins' home. Once they were there the twins had jumped out, tears in their eyes.

Minutes had passed. Then another few minutes. It was probably an hour before Stan had gotten out and walked inside, now worried. He had wished that day he had went inside first…

Both Mabel and Dipper were holding each other on the ground, both sobbing into each other's shoulders. On the floor crumpled before them was their parents' lifeless bodies, crushed by beds that had fallen through the ceiling. Stan hadn't seen them in years… before the twins were even born, it was at a family function Shermy had invited him to. Stan had stood there, tears in his eyes as he had watched the twins sob.

After another half hour to 45 minutes the twins had slowly got up, holding each other's hands. Stan without a moment's hesitation went and had given them a hug, and they cried into his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, kiddos…" Stan had hoarsely whispered. "I should've drove faster… or maybe I shouldn't have stopped anywhere… we could've went to those stores after we got them…"

Dipper had sniffed. "It's not your fault, Grunkle Stan." His voice had been raw sounding. "It's Bill's… he caused all of this…"

Mabel had then taken a shaky breath, "Mom… dad… they're gone… why?"

After another hour or so Dipper had gone through his and Mabel's childhood home and gathered whatever pictures of their parents and them he could find. He had packed whatever food he saw and had set the items by Stan, who had been still holding Mabel as she cried. Dipper then grabbed blankets and had slowly put them over Mr. and Mrs. Pines, tears streaming down his face.

Stan at that point had picked up Mabel and took her back to the RV, Dipper following close behind. Once Stan had gotten the kids settled he went back inside the house and found a shovel in the garage. He had went into their backyard and dug at the ground by a large pine tree. Slowly, he had gently dragged the body of his nephew and niece-in-law into the makeshift graves. He had gotten a piece of plywood and wrote with permanent marker their names and how they would be deeply missed and they were loving parents. They had needed a proper burial, he couldn't just leave them under the rubble.

Stan had then traveled to more craft stores to get more yarn for Mabel, who had been mindlessly knitting since being inside the RV, trying to keep herself distracted. He was trying to travel as east as he could, hoping to find anything useful.

Now that year and half passed… the twins were 14 and a half years old. Dipper had grown noticeably taller, he was taller than his sister, and he was losing the baby fat from his face. Mabel's baby face was slowly thinning out, becoming a young woman, and she had cut her brown hair to shoulder length to keep it more manageable, but her pinks still had the circles of pink.

"Grunkle Stan…?" he heard his niece whisper. "Is something wrong?" she was sitting up, rubbing her eyes.

Stan didn't realize he was just watching the kids sleep. He shook his head gently, "Nothing's wrong, Pumpkin, I'm sorry I woke you…" he whispered, trying not to wake his nephew.

Mabel stares at him with warm brown eyes. "I miss them…" she tearfully said. "I miss Mom and Dad… I miss Grunkle Ford… I miss Soos and Wendy…"

Dipper at this point woke up, his brown hair a mess as usual, and he gave his sister a hug. "I miss them all too…" he told her.

Stan gives his great niece and nephew a sad smile. "I'll go make some breakfast and we will hit the road, okay?" The twins nod and Stan left.

Stan himself was wearing a sweater made by Mabel, a dark maroon in color, the same as his fez. In the center in a golden yellow was his trademark symbol… the same symbol that was on that wheel Ford drew on the floor in the pyramid.

As Stan cooked eggs on the rusty stove he gives an angry look.

 _If only I swallowed my damn pride and just held his hand!_ Stan thought to himself furiously. _Ford would still be here, the world would not have gone to hell, and the twins… the twins would still have their parents…_

Dipper and Mabel entered the kitchen part of the RV where Stan was. Dipper wearing his traditional pine tree hat and was wearing a sweater that was the same colors has his hat with a pine tree in the middle. Mabel wore a blue sweater had her shooting star symbol on it, even though she has a red-purplish one with the symbol on it she had made more.

The twins sat at the small table where plates were waiting for them. They stared at their uncle wondering why he was looking so angry. After another minute the twins received their breakfast.

As they ate Stan went to the radio and was tuning in, hearing for any distress signals for a safe place to go. However, what he heard wasn't what he had in mind…

 _"_ _Greetings meat bags that is called Human Race!"_ The shrill voice of Bill Cipher blared through the radio, making the twins look up from their breakfast. _"I am here to tell you that I am looking for a certain family… the Pines family to be precise. I am looking for a man that looks similar to my human ambassador-"_ Ford. _"And two children accompanying him… one wearing a pine tree hat and the other wearing some ridiculous sweater-"_

"My sweaters are not ridiculous!" Mabel shouted with anger.

 _"_ _Because I have a little deal for them… one that could get their precious family member back."_ A snicker from Bill cackles through the speaker. _"So, Stanley Pines… if you're listening… how much do you want your twin brother back?"_

Static broke through the radio, leaving Stan looking at it speechless.


	3. Chapter 3: The Other Pines

**Chapter 3: The Other Pines**

As the yellow triangular demon shut off the radio signal that broadcasted his message, Ford sat at the foot of the throne that was made of the human inhabitants of the world, faces scrunched up in eternal pain and torture.

Stanford Pines was wearing a thick metal collar around his neck, a chain leading to the throne. The clothing he was wearing was a long yellow coat with tails, a white dress shirt with a black bow tie, black dress pants, black dress shoes, black satin gloves, and a tall top hat; he looked the part of being Bill's puppet. His hair was brushed back for a slick look, the light gray streak at the side of his hair showing. The stress lines around his eyes seemed to be deeper and his 5 o'clock shadow was practically as thick as his brother's was. His brown eyes were hardened with anger, darks circles under them. It looked like he aged quite a bit in just a year and a half.

"You're a fool if you think my brother would ever make a deal with you, Cipher!" Ford shouted in anger. "Stanley may not be a genius like myself, but he is _not an idiot_!" He then grabbed for his collar, trying to get the metal away from his skin.

"Really, Forsdy? You're really going to try and talk back to me in the position you're in?" Bill laughed with amusement.

Ford gives a hard glare.

Bill floats towards him and takes off Ford's hat and gives him a pet like he was a dog. "Don't worry… I have a deal-"

"And if he refuses?" Ford interrupted as he gives a smirk, knowing already his brother won't do it.

"I know _someone_ who will make the deal with me!" Bill gives off a cackle of high shrill laughter.

"What…? What do you mean?" Ford questioned. Who else was there…?

Bill snaps his fingers and a window of blue fire appears in the air. In the center showed the image of Dipper in the RV eating his egg breakfast. The bags under his eyes were dark and his stress lines were thick. The redness on his nose looked pale compared to Ford's memories of him. On Dipper's head as usual was his blue and white pine tree hat, and he wore a sweater with the same color scheme with the pine tree in the center.

Ford's eyes squint in confusion. Then he himself laughs, "Yeah right! Like Dipper would ever make a deal with you!"

Bill squints his one eye. "Oh…?" his voice was filled with amusement. "You had wanted Pine Tree to be your apprentice right? So the kid obviously is quite intelligent… He's also got the weirdness factor you have."

Ford says nothing.

"You see, Stanford, you're not going to live forever, and I do enjoy having a puppet at my disposal." Bill gives Ford a snarky look. "So… I want Pine Tree to be your successor at being my puppet. I have possessed him before… he reminds me a lot of you, Stanford!"

"LIKE HELL HE WILL BE!" Ford screams. "I rather have you run me dead, resurrect me and run me dead again, over and over for eternity then let you have Dipper!"

Bill cackles, "As much as I like your enthusiasm, Ford, I like Pine Tree a bit better… He is young an innocent… and that's _perfect_ to break! He is like Stanley in a way, and will do anything for his family…" Bill's hands become engulfed in blue fire. "One little threat to Shooting Star and he will be at my feet like a lost puppy!"

"If you dare do _anything_ to Mabel and Dipper I swear I'll-" Ford was pissed. Beyond pissed, he was furious.

"You'll do _WHAT, STANFORD?_ " Bill turned red with anger, his eye black. The blue flames turned red and more fire appeared around him. Ford shut his mouth. "One more act like that and I'll possess you and have you _KILL SHOOTING STAR AND YOUR BROTHER!"_

Ford hung his head and lowered his hands from the collar. His eyes were starting to fill with tears. He wanted to protect the kids… and now Bill was going to hurt them.

"Now, Forsdy," Bill said in his normal tone, him being his yellow color again. "We have a little trip to do, so I need your body now." Bill snaps his fingers and the collar was released from Ford. Ford knew the drill and held out his six fingered hand and with a blue flamed hand Bill Cipher grasps it. Bill's body physically turned to stone and stayed at the foot of the throne.

When Ford blinked open his eyes they were no longer his brown. The sclera was tinted yellow as if he had jaundice, his iris and pupil were pure black and were a slit, like a snake. Ford was a mere shadow of his former self and Bill took complete control and gave a sadistic smile.

Bill-Ford walked down the stone steps that had led to the throne. He walked down the corridors of his castle, the torches of blue fire extinguishing as he walked by. Soon he reached the front of the castle and snapped his fingers for a car to appear before him.

Bill gives off a cackle as everything goes black, leaving his eyes now glowing a bright gold.


	4. Chapter 4: Not So Happy Hunting

**Chapter 4: Not So Happy Hunting**

Dipper slung the hunting rifle over his shoulder via strap, adjusting his thick forest green colored coat to not rub him the wrong way.

He replaced his traditional blue and white pine tree hat with a camouflage one, a forest green colored pine tree in its center. His hands were covered with thick, warm gloves, he wore thick dark green pants, and he wore black boots.

"Dipper!" Mabel called to him before he could open the door to the RV. "Here… I packed you a lunch… it's not much, but it should at least not have your stomach growling to scare the game away."

"Thank you, Mabel." Dipper takes the small sack that was his lunch and put it in one of his coat pockets.

"Good luck, Dip'n Dot!" Mabel gives a brilliant smile, her braces now gone. She had outgrew them and at one of their town stops a dentist was still around and helped removed them for her.

Dipper gives a small salute with a smile and leaves the RV.

Since they were in the Midwest part of the country and it was January, it was freezing. It wasn't snowing yet, the ground was still covered with thick green undergrowth. Dipper saw his breath in the air and his face stung from the cold. He goes deep into the nearby forest and finds a large bush for him to hide out in, and the wind was blowing at his face, which meant his scent won't be noticeable as much.

Dipper lowers himself to the hard, cold ground and removes the gun from his shoulder. He props his elbows up and holds the gun steady, his eye at the scope. He didn't have any sort of bait, so he had to hope something will stumble out of hibernation to get something.

As he waited Dipper remembered when he first learned to shoot a gun…

It was after leaving Piedmont, California that their Grunkle Stan said they would try to head east. After parking outside of Vegas, which was dark and abandoned, Stan went to his one suitcases and opened it, revealing the guns.

"Grunkle Stan… you own _guns_?!" Dipper had shrieked, his puberty voice cracking.

"10 of them in fact." Mabel had chipped in, her voice still a low tone from witnessing their parents. "He said it was in case that some maniac would come in with a ladder."

Stan picked up one of the pistols and loaded a clip into it. He was a little slow at it since it had been years since he picked one up like this. He cocks it and puts the safety on then proceeds to do the same to another pistol. He then hands he pistols to the now 13-year-olds.

"Are you _crazy_ Grunkle Stan?!" Dipper had screeched. "You're giving us guns?!"

"I'm going to teach you two how to use them!" Stan had grumbled, finally loading the last one for himself. "The world is hell now… I want you two to at least defend yourselves!" Stan at this time was still wearing his Mr. Mystery get up, his fez sitting on his head like always. "So… let's go outside and I'll show you two how to use these."

Mabel had gotten up from her seat and was about to follow their Grunkle out the door when Dipper had shouted, "WHY? WHAT DO YOU MEAN TO LEARN HOW TO USE GUNS?!"

"Dipper…" Mabel had worriedly whispered. "Dipper, it'll be okay…"

Stan then approached his great nephew. "Dipper, I know this is something you prefer not to do… but sometimes… we just have to do things we don't want to." He had looked at the gun in his hand.

Dipper had done a distraught nod and followed Grunkle Stan outside, Mabel taking his hand tightly. They were outside and Stan then set up some targets he had found a few stops ago. He takes the safety off his gun and slowly raised the gun and aimed. He pulled the trigger and with a deafening sound the bullet hits toward the middle of the bullseye.

"The trick is to not close one eye like they show in the movies," Stan had informed them as he had put the safety back on. "Keep both eyes open and whatever double vision you see with this little aim thing… sorry, I really don't know the term of it... the middle of it is where your target will hit, most likely. It takes practice."

He had then got the twins to stand in front of targets to practice and hands both the kids a box of 9mm ammunition, pretty standard for a handgun. Mabel was doing decent, even the recoil wasn't hard for her, because of her time practicing with her grappling hook; despite what recently just happened, she gave a small grin of victory when she got closer and closer to the bullseye. Dipper on the other hand had been terrible. Every time he had shot the gun he dropped it from the recoil, like he was scared he was going to shoot himself. A few times he actually had almost shot his own foot or even Stan.

"Dipper!" Stan had screamed for the fourth time that the young boy accidentally shot himself. "You can't be afraid of it! Think of it as an extension of yourself!" Stan had then knelt down to his great nephew's level. "Think about it for a minute… if something was attacking your sister, wouldn't you want to help her?"

Dipper had looked at his grunkle with a new found look of determination. First Ford, then their parents… if something happened to Mabel, or even Stan, Dipper had no idea what he would do without them. "I will protect Mabel…" He had then raised the gun once again, both hands around the handle to steady it, and aimed at the target and then pulled the trigger. The bullet had went to the target, it wasn't a bullseye but it had been close. It was the first time he had actually hit the target.

"I… I did it!" Dipper had cried out happily. "I actually shot it!" His brown eyes were big, and just so youthful.

"Awesome, Dipper!" Mabel had joined in too. "With some more practice you'll be a sharpshooter!"

Stan gave a low chuckle. "Not bad kid, not bad at all!" he had told him as he took off Dipper's hat and gave his brown hair a tussle.

During those few weeks Dipper trained with the pistol, and then he moved on to the hunting rifle. The rifle was so large to him at first… he had no idea how he would handle it.

"This has a different caliber of bullets," Grunkle Stan had told Dipper and Mabel. "This is more for hunting… so like deer and does."

Mabel's eyes had widened when he had mentioned the deer. "Deer?! As in like, _Bambi_!? And you can kill does!? You would kill Bambi's mom!?" Both Dipper and Grunkle Stan had looked to her with confusion. "Sorry… that part of the movie just makes me sad…"

Stan had then showed them how to use the hunting rifle, and Dipper was a natural. Staying in a place quietly was his kind of style, and a long distance was perfect for him. He learned to hunt real quickly, and went on a "Coming of Age" hunting trip just inside the woods to bring home a deer. Dipper had brought down his first deer in a matter of three shots at critical arteries.

Now Dipper sat in the undergrowth, his brown eyes focused ahead of him. Because it was January deer wouldn't be around much, so he was hoping a stray squirrel or hare would come out. Dipper took a deep breath, his hands steady.

A flash of gray streaked across his vision and within a moment Dipper found the target and pulled the trigger. One loud shot rang causing whatever nearby birds to fly away in panic. With a grunt, Dipper got up from his spot in the undergrowth and went to his game.

Lying on the ground was a decent sized hare, it would make for some great soup. "Awesome," Dipper whispered happily to himself as he pulled out his journal and documented his kill. He then took a sack from his side, sewn by his sister of course, and he stuffed in the hare. He decided that he should try to find some other game before heading back to the RV, so he sits on an old tree stump to take a small break and each his small lunch made by Mabel.

It was some bit of leftover squirrel meat from a few days ago with crackers. Dipper gives a small smile and ate it gladly. Never in his life would he have ever thought of eating a squirrel!

 _Heck… never in my life would I ever expect to see gnomes, or lake monsters, shapeshifters, aliens… or even a yellow demon shaped like a triangle…_ He thought to himself.

Growling then came from the trees, low and threatening. Dipper slips the rifle over his shoulder and pulls out his pistol, aiming straight toward the noise. His eyes were focused and his finger stayed on that trigger.

 _"_ _Pine… tree… hat…"_ the source of the growling stated.

Dipper glances upwards to his hat. It wasn't his normal pine tree hat, so when he got his hunting gear together Mabel put a patch on a hat for him. She had stated to him that he didn't look like himself without the pine tree symbol.

"What do you want!?" Dipper demanded, his hands were steady ready to fire.

An enormous black paw exits the growth of the woods, then another appeared. Its head was massive as it emerged, its fangs bared and a disgusting brownish color. The eyes were a deep blood red, and Dipper could practically see his reflection they were so big. When its whole body emerged it made the Multibear look like an innocent German Shepard sized dog.

"Oh… shit." Dipper's mouth was agape, his voice nothing but a whisper. A pistol can't take that thing down, not even the rife could. _I'd need a damn assault rifle or something like that for this thing…!_

 _"_ _Pine… Tree… hat…"_ The beast growled, sending shivers up Dipper's spine. _"For… Master… Cipher…"_ The beast then lunged, it may have been big but its speed was slow and clumsy.

Dipper dodged left and when the beast's head passed by his arm he quickly aimed the pistol towards its eyes. He pulled the trigger three times, a dark, inky fluid sprayed from the bullet wounds and the beast roared with rage. As the beast was distracted with its wounds Dipper made a grab for his game and started running.

The thick woods was slowing him down a bit, but hopefully it would slow down that monster too. More growling came from the bushes and undergrowth, beady red, orange, green, and white eyes peeking through the bushes and trees.

 _"_ _Pine tree hat."_ The monsters whispered all around him. Panicked, Dipper turned off course from where the main road was. He found a steep hill and started trying to get down it but ended up slipping on a rock and began tumbling down.

Dipper landed on the ground with a hard _whack!_ He gasped in pain, putting a hand to his head. When he removed it his hand was covered in a bright scarlet. His hunting rifle had fallen off his shoulder and his pistol got knocked from his hand. He got the rifle and slung that over his shoulder and as he made his way for the pistol, a nice black dress shoe steps on his wrist, pinning it.

"AUGH!" Dipper yelped as he tried to yank his arm, but it was no use. He glances up…

And saw Ford's face in a sadistic smile.

 _"_ _Well, well, well!"_ The voice that came out of Ford's mouth wasn't his, but Bill Cipher's. He gives a cackle.

 _"_ _Hello, Pine Tree!"_


	5. Chapter 5: The Not Old Switcheroo

**Chapter 5: The Not Old Switcheroo**

 _"_ _I've got some children I need to turn into corpses!"_

 _Bill's normal yellow triangular appearance turns a deep red, his body splitting into three sections, giant, jagged, yellowish teeth baring through the spaces. His eye turned black, a slit of a yellow pupil. His top hat turned into a glowing yellow color, four extra arms coming from his body the same yellow color._

 _"_ _Seeya real soon…!" Bill's voice was lower and much more demonic sounding than his normal shrill tone. He then crawled out of the main room, like a giant spider, chasing down Mabel and Dipper._

 _"_ _No! Wait! No! No!" Stan was gripping and shaking the bars of the prism prison that he was in with Ford. "Oh, what do we do!? What do we do?!" he shouted._

 _"_ _KIDS!" Ford was banging on the bars to no avail._

 _Stan then collapses to his knees. "Oh, I can't believe this. The kids are gonna die and it's all my fault." He holds up a hand. "Because I couldn't shake your stupid hand!" He closes his eyes and his face glooms over with sadness. "Uh, Dad was right about me. I am a screw up…"_

 _Ford releases the bars and sits down next to his twin. "Ah, don't blame yourself. I'm the one who made the deal with Bill in the first place." He gestures with his hand. "I fell for all his easy flattery." He takes out a water canteen. "You would have seen him for the scam artist he is." He takes a sip of the water then hands it to his twin._

 _Stan takes it. "How did things get so messed up between us?" he takes a sip of the water._

 _"_ _We used to be like Dipper and Mabel," Ford pointed out. "The world's about to end and they still work together." He gives a slight confused look. "How do they do it?"_

 _"_ _Easy," Stan scoffed. "They're kids, they don't know any better." His twin then gets up, a determined look on his face. "Whoa, where you going?"_

 _"_ _I'm going to play the only card we have left," Ford said. "Let Bill into my mind. He'll be able to take over the galaxy and maybe even worse, but at least he_ might _let the kids free."_

 _Stan jumps_ _up. "What?!" he shouted. "Are you kidding me?! Are you honestly telling me there's nothing else we can do!?"_

 _Ford gives his twin brother a hard look. "Bill's only weakness is in the mind space. If I didn't have this darn plate in my head-" he taps it. "-we could just erase him with the memory gun when he steps into my mind." Ford then takes out the memory gun that his old friend McGucket had made to try to forget his accidental glance in the portal._

 _Stan looks at the memory gun curiously. "What if he goes into_ my _mind? My brain isn't good for anything."_

 _Ford gives a dark chuckle. "There's nothing in your mind he wants. It_ has _to be me. We need to take his deal. It's the only way he'll agree to save you and the kids." He then grips the prison bars and leans into it. Stan does the same thing._

 _"_ _Do you think he's gonna make good on that deal?" Stan asked._

 _Ford then gives him a defeated look. "What other choice do we have?"_

 _Stan then angrily punches the bars. "You idiot! We should just switch places!" He then turns and grips Ford's shoulder, moving him away from the bars. "Like we did when we were kids! We tricked Ma and Dad all the time!"_

 _"_ _Stanley, when we were younger we looked more similar, despite being fraternal twins!" Ford argued. "For God's sake, you look older than me and_ I'm _the older twin!" he gestures to him. "You're not shaven like I am, you don't have this gray streak I have, and you don't have six fingers on each hand!" he takes Stan's hands off of him. "The moment you would go shake hands with Bill he will notice right away! There wouldn't even be a chance to make a deal, he'll be so furious he'll the kill the kids on the spot!"_

 _Stan's face was the look of grief. Ford was right… he was always right. When they were kids it was easy to switch places without a care in the world. Their parents never bothered to look at their hands to tell the difference. If they did try to switch to trick Bill he'd kill the kids._

 _"_ _Then…_ WHAT CAN WE DO STANFORD?!" _Stan screamed in dismay. "Ya think I'm going to stand here and let you sacrifice yourself to Bill for a slim chance of survival?!"_

 _Ford angrily shouts back, "There is nothing_ WE CAN DO STANLEY _! This is the_ ONLY WAY _!" he gives his younger twin a look of dismay. "When will you stop being so damn stubborn?"_

 _"_ _The day you do, Poindexter!" Stan retorts back. He was fuming. It was a plan at least to switch! Even if Bill killed them all, it'd be better than not trying at all…_

 _Before Ford could say anything back a loud rumble filled the room. Bill's monstrous form breaks through the opening, in his right hand both the kids were trying to struggle free._

 _"_ _Alright, Ford!" Bill bellowed in his shrill voice. "Time's up. I got the kids!" His voice then becomes filled with sarcastic amusement. "I think I'm gonna kill one of them now just for the heck of it!" Bill's pupil then turns into the shape of a pine tree. "EENIE." Then to the shooting star. "MEENIE." Back to the pine tree. "MINEE." His pupil then lands on the shooting star and as he says, "YOU!" he raises his hand, about to snap his fingers._

 _"_ _NO, CIPHER!" Ford then screams at the top of his lungs, now truly knowing there was nothing else he could do. "I SURRENDER!"_

 _Bill then drops the kids. "Good choice, Stanford." He then reverts into his normal form._

 _"_ _I'll let you into my mind, Bill." Ford began to say as Bill holds out a blue flamed hand. "BUT!" Bill gives a curious look. "If I do this… let you into my mind… you can even have my body… total ownership of me to be your puppet… you have to promise that you will not harm Stanley, Dipper and Mabel in any way! They will_ live _." Ford then gives Bill what one would call the "stare of death", his hands into tight fists, practically shaking._

 _If Bill could smile, he would, so his one eye gives the motion of how a smile would change it._

 _"_ _It's a_ deal _Stanford Filbrick Pines." Bill then grasps Ford's now outstretched hand. Bill's physical body then turns into stone and Ford collapses onto his knees and something drops from his coat._

 _"_ _GREAT UNCLE FORD!" Dipper screamed as Mabel screamed, "GRUNKLE FORD!"_

 _Stan stood there staring at his brother. It was over. There was nothing they could do now. He glances to the fallen object. The memory gun. Stan grabs it and types in "Bill Cipher" onto the screen and aimed at Ford's head. He didn't care if there was a metal plate in Ford's head, he had to at least_ try _. He shoots the gun, but the beam seemed to be deflected and it soared out the hole in the wall._

 _"_ _No…" Stan whispered. "Why… didn't we just switch?"_

 _Ford then opens his eyes. They were glowing a golden yellow color, the pupil a slit. He began cackling in Bill's shrill voice._

* * *

"GAH!" Stan sat up from his seat that he was sleeping in, his heart pounding in his chest so hard he thought it was going to burst.

The RV was quiet, the only sound was the roaring of Stan's blood in his ears. He glances around, not seeing the kids. He gets up and peeks around to their room to see that Mabel was knitting again. Dipper was nowhere.

"Hey, Sweetie?" Stan called to her. She looks up, her trance broken, her warm brown eyes gazing at him. "Where's your brother?"

"Dipper went hunting, we ran out of meat," Mabel explained. Then she peeked through the curtain of the small window. "But… it's starting to get dark… Dipper hasn't come back yet…" her voice sounded worried. "Even if he didn't get any game he would've brought back some berries or something."

Stan's heart drops. "Put on something warm." He orders her. "We're gonna go look for Dipper." He then pokes his head out of the room and shuts the door to give her privacy. He then goes to his little sleeping area and puts on a thick hunter's coat over his sweater and puts on thick gloves. Now that it was getting dark it was going to be freezing.

Mabel exits the room, wearing her own hunter's coat, but instead of the green it was a dimmed pink in color. At her side in a holster was pink camo handled gun with two clips in the little pockets. Her trusty grappling hook was on a clip on her other side, ready to be used.

"I'm ready, Grunkle Stan." Mabel said to him as she puts on a knitted hat, a symbol of Waddles sewn into it.

Stan puts on a simple red knitted hat and opens the door, the other hunting rifle in his hands. They both began walking in the woods calling for Dipper. After an hour or so Stan noticed blood on the dirt floor. It was a small amount, it could be from an animal.

Mabel glanced at it too. "Maybe Dipper shot something?" she suggested. "Maybe he got something and is heading to the RV now…"

"We would've heard a shot, sweetie." Stan pointed out as he continued forward. "DIPPER! DIPPER PINES WHERE ARE YOU?!" he screamed into the forest.

Something moved from within the woods. Mabel hovers a hand to her hand gun, ready to grab it. Stan grips the hunting rifle tighter, ready to snap it into position to shoot if needed. The leaves shook again, and the sound of footsteps was getting louder…

Dipper appeared from the shadows.

"Dipper!" Mabel shouted with happiness as she runs towards him. She throws her arms around him. "Dipper, you're okay!"

"GAH!" Dipper yelped as the air was squeezed out of him. "Yes, Mabel, I'm fine!" Dipper had some blood on his face and there was blood on his one glove. "I just hit my head a little, nothing major."

"Hitting your head _is_ major, Dipper!" Mabel protested. "C'mon! Let's get back to the RV!" she takes his non-bloodied hand and starts to drag him towards where they have come.

"Okay, okay!" Dipper agreed. "Just stop tugging, please?"

Stan watched for a moment as the twins walked away. He slowly glances back into the forest, his stomach uneasy. His brown eyes widened in surprise from what he saw.

A pair of glowing, golden eyes were staring at him.


	6. Chapter 6: The Cipher and the Pine Tree

**Chapter 6: The Cipher and the Pine Tree**

"Bill?!" Dipper managed to gasp out.

Seeing his Great Uncle Ford, his _idol_ , being forced to be a puppet for Bill was sickening. Ford was a man of science, he wrote the journals that Dipper was obsessed with during his time in Gravity Falls. Ford even played _Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons_ with him, and took him to see a real alien spaceship.

Now Ford was forced to wear this yellow long coat with tails at the end. It was half buttoned up, revealing a white dress shirt and a black bow tie. On top of Ford's head was a tall, black top hat. In Ford's black gloved hands was a cane. Despite being in the woods there wasn't a speck of dirt on his black dress shoes or pants.

"That's right, Pine Tree!" Bill-Ford replied enthusiastically. He then looks at his hat. "You got a different hat..? Huh… weird, I would expect you to be practically buried with the other one."

"This is a hunting hat!" Dipper snapped as he tried to pry his arm away.

Bill-Ford gives a laugh. "Hunting? Oh… so you know how to use a gun? That would explain why my beast has bullet holes in its head… I would never think you would be able to aim a gun let alone _shoot_ one with great accuracy…"

"Despite you taking over my uncle's body he would be glad if I shot him in the head so he'd be released from you!" Dipper's voice was filled with a venom of rage. "Grunkle Stan may not like it… but I bet he'd rather see his brother dead then see him in your possession!"

Bill-Ford cocks an eyebrow. "Wow… those teenage hormones are hitting your attitude hard, Pine Tree." He gives a smile, one that would normally looks so genuine to Ford, almost reminding Dipper of Mabel's smile, but was ruined with Bill's yellow eyes. "It's almost _adorable_! I think I like you a bit more with this angst!"

Dipper glares, his brown eyes hardened with anger.

"But… I'm not here about that!" Bill-Ford clapped his hands together, the cane disappearing. "I have a little deal for you, Pine Tree."

Dipper screams, "And you can shut up and go to hell!" he finally gripped the gun that was underneath his hand and yanked his arm as hard as he could. Bill-Ford had relaxed his foot slightly, so Dipper flung backwards from his momentum. He adjusts himself and aims the gun at Bill-Ford. "I mean it… I will shoot."

Bill-Ford gives an exasperated sigh. "Wow, Pine Tree, you're going to make this difficult aren't you?"

With a deep breath, Dipper pulled the trigger. The bullet went straight toward Bill-Ford's head. The bullet hit the skin and skull with a sickening _thump!_ Bill-Ford just gives Dipper an agitated look. With a flamed hand Bill-Ford waved over the wound and it sealed up, as if it never happened.

Dipper's eyes widened as he stumbles back. One, he actually shot at his own family with full intention of killing him. And two, it had _no effect_.

"Look, Pine Tree, normally I would've let that kill Fordsy here, but I need him as my puppet for a little while longer." Bill-Ford sighed with agitation. "I need a successor for him." Bill-Ford then gives Dipper a sadistic smile. "So, how about it, Pine Tree? Will you have the honor of being my puppet again?"

"LIKE HELL I WILL!" Dipper screamed at the top of his lungs as he shot with his pistol again. He shot wherever he could see through the stinging tears that was forming in his eyes. He shot at the head, the jugular vein in the neck, the heart, and just in random spots.

Blood seeped through Bill-Ford's clothes, turning the yellow into a rusty orange color. The white dress shirt was a bright scarlet. The bright blood dripped down the head wound, it was so very sluggish as it _drip dropped_ onto his clothes and onto the dirt floor.

Bill-Ford's eyes then turns into a bright red. He snaps his fingers and Dipper froze in place. With a menacing glare Bill-Ford steps forward towards the boy. He grabs Dipper by the collar of his coat and then throws him into the ground. Dipper screamed in pain, but Bill-Ford was amused by this and kicks the teenaged boy at his side.

"What about…" Dipper coughs in pain. "That deal you made with Great Uncle Ford…? To not harm us in any way…?"

Bill-Ford cackles, his eyes turning back into the yellow, "Oh, sorry about that, Pine Tree! You're right!" he then puts a hand to his face, feigning embarrassment. "I have no idea what came over me… you just pissed me off so much, I just reacted." He snaps his fingers and Dipper was healed, even his head wound from earlier.

Dipper stayed on the ground, the gun still in his hand. He was ready to shoot and run if he had to. He had to get to Mabel and Grunkle Stan, to tell them that Bill was here.

"I wouldn't think about that if I were you, Pine Tree." Bill-Ford, seemingly reading his mind, and wagged a finger, like scolding a child. He then crouches down to the boy. "Now… about my deal."

"Whatever you can offer me Bill, the answer is no." Dipper's was firm, but inside he was shaking with fear.

Bill-Ford cocks an eyebrow. "You see, Pine Tree, I am now planning to have my reign go across the universe." He began. "Although I have Stanford here as an ambassador, it doesn't scream _Ultimate Ruler_ , you know? Ford is old, old doesn't make a good reign of power. You, on the other hand are still quite young, youth is shown to be powerful as it means it is a sign of life going on."

Dipper spits, "What's your point, Cipher?"

"My point is, I need a younger puppet to rule the other lifeforms." Bill-Ford gives a grin. "And _ding ding ding_ Pine Tree, you win!"

"Why me…?" Dipper asks, actually now curious.

"Because, you're literally just like Ford." Bill-Ford stated. "Your intelligence is higher than average, despite you being out of school – sorry about ruining the schools by the way… I never really cared for them – you seemed to have increased your knowledge."

Dipper gives a huff, "Well, I had plenty of time to read… you know, the end of the world and all." He made a gesture with his hand to the world around him.

"Also, you have the same way of thinking as Ford," Bill-Ford continued. "But… there is something about you I just like better… I really have no clue." He gives a shrug. "C'mon, Pine Tree, I'm giving you a perfect opportunity to discover new life forms here! You saw that alien spaceship, right…? You're not curious to see what more are out there?"

"As tempting that is, Bill," Dipper says sarcastically, "No."

Bill-Ford's eyes narrowed. He then gives a smirk, a plan forming in his head. "Okay then… if I use Ford here and tell the lifeforms about this planet… there is no guarantee that they won't come here and try to kill the rest of the human race… including your family."

"YOU SAID-"

"That _I_ wouldn't harm you Pines." Bill-Ford interrupted. "I mean… if you were my puppet, you being younger would easily impress the others, they would actually listen… or, you can put your family into a special… protective custody so to speak."

There was shouting in the distance.

"Mabel…?" Dipper whispered as he slowly got up.

"I'll give you two weeks to think about this, Pine Tree." Bill-Ford informed him. "I know Stanley has been planning something… I have eyes and ears everywhere… but I just don't know what yet, my stupid servants can't figure it out… So, if I see you before then, _you better have an answer!_ "

He then disappears in the sound of his cackling.

Dipper begins to walk up the hill, all his stuff with him. He checked his game to see how badly it was damaged. It looked a little rough, but it should be fine to cook and consume, it just might be a bit gamey. As Dipper climbed he heard the shouts getting louder and louder, Mabel and Grunkle Stan were looking for him.

When he got to the top had walked through a patch of thick woods. He emerged out to see Mabel and Stan tense. After the small reunion Mabel was dragging Dipper back towards the RV, telling him about how worried she was of him. He glances back and sees Stan looking into the woods. He was curious to see what he was looking at, so he focused in the woods.

Dipper saw a pair of glowing, golden eyes.

He gulps and faces forward. Bill wanted Dipper to be his new puppet… if what he said was true, could aliens come and kill the rest of the human race?

 _That seems so farfetched though…_ Dipper thought to himself. _What are the odds of that happening?_

A sudden mental list then goes through his head. What were the odds that he found Journal 3? Or the odds of Stan actually fixing the portal for Ford to get through? Or the odds of even Gideon finding Journal 2? More and more things got added to the list.

 _I guess it does seem possible…_ Dipper thought bitterly. He then glances at his sister, who was still chatting away about how worried she was and that she was happy that he was okay.

 _If something was attacking your sister… wouldn't you want to help her?_

 _You can put your family is in special protective custody…_

Dipper gives a worried look, not showing Mabel. What was he going to do…?


	7. Chapter 7: Stan Has a Plan

**Chapter 7: Stan Has a Plan**

Once they were back at the RV Stan had started gutting and removing the fur from the hare for their meal that night.

Every few minutes he would glance at Dipper, who was sitting at the small table with a book in his hand, and give him a worried look. The boy hasn't spoken since coming back to the RV, he just changed out of his hunting attire and cleaned himself up, going from his hunting version of his hat to his normal one, wearing a white sweater with a dark blue pine tree at its center. It seemed that the kid wasn't even reading though… like he was just faking it. It looked like he had something else on his mind.

The memory of those golden eyes crept back.

Did Dipper see Bill…? And if he did was it actually Bill, or did he use Ford's body? Stan had only seen his brother one time since that day, and it was an appearance at a local shelter that he had taken the kids to for a decent meal at the first start of the apocalypse.

Bill had used Ford's body to kill innocent people. Women, children, the elderly… Luckily the kids were sleeping when it first started happening and Stan got them out of there before they could see their uncle murdering people. Stan could never forget Bill's laughter of pure evil as he used Ford's body, even if he used the memory gun.

"Hey, kiddo?" Stan said to Dipper. The boy raised his head. "Did… you see something in the woods earlier…?"

"Just the usual monsters and demons trying to get human flesh." Dipper replied nonchalantly. He waved it off like it was nothing.

"Are you sure…?"

"YES!"

Both stared at each other for a heated moment before Dipper slams his book shut and walks off to the front of the RV to sit in the passenger seat to "read" more. Mabel then came into the small kitchen area with vegetables she grew in the small plot outside the RV.

"What's wrong with, Dipper?" she asked.

"Becoming a teenaged boy." Stan replied bitterly as he started cutting the meat of the hare into chunks. "We'll save half of this meat for later in the week." He puts the chunks in a pot filled with stock that he made with using their previous meals. Mabel had cut up the vegetables and put them in the pot as well. "Did you get the seeds from the garden?" Like they could even call it that, it was just a dirt pile they planted stuff in.

"Yeah… are we going to leave soon?" Mabel asked. She turned the small stove on and added some seasoning.

Stan nodded. "We are going to meet up with someone." He told her as he went and sat down at his "bed".

"Who…?" Mabel was beaming. New people!? As much as she loved her brother and her grunkle, it was annoying living with boys all the time.

Dipper poked his head from the front and was watching.

"We are meeting with Bud Gleeful," Stan grumbled. "As much as I had hated that guy and his kid back in Gravity Falls we have been talking the past few months over the radio."

Dipper had then walked back and sat at the table, his book closed and pushed to the side. "For what…?"

Stan glances over. "Do you two remember the wheel Ford drew on the ground…?" The kids nod. "Well… we are going to try and do that again."

"Don't we need Grunkle Ford though?" Mabel pointed out.

"And the rest of the wheel?" Dipper added bitterly.

 _Ten symbols placed around a wheel. Hand and hand they'll bond the seal. But break the chain and pay the cost, the prophecy will all be lost._

That day Stan broke the chain. He got so mad at Ford about correcting his grammar that he put the universe at risk. Stan never forgave himself… if he would've just swallowed his anger, his pride, then maybe the world would be okay right now.

The six fingered hand was Ford of course, because of his polydactyly. The fish-looking symbol was Stan, even himself he has no idea why he picked that symbol for his fez. The question mark was Soos, he was always wearing one of the Mystery Shack's shirts. The ice bag was Wendy, she was always cool at everything she did. The pine tree was Dipper, his hat has a pine tree on it and it could also be because of the last name "Pines". The glasses was McGucket, the man was a mechanical genius, despite going crazy for using the memory gun in himself so much. The llama was Pacifica, for what reason it was not known, she just borrowed a sweater from Mabel the night before they went to save Ford. The shooting star was Mabel, her signature sweater had this design on it, and it could be because she was always beaming a radiance of happiness and joy. The pentagram was Gideon because of his symbol for his Tent of Telepathy. The stitched heart was Robbie, who had apparently been wearing that same hoodie since he was in 7th grade.

After Bill had shown up during Stan and Ford's fighting he had turned the remaining people of the wheel into tapestries. It is actually unknown if they still exist or if Bill had destroyed them.

Until…

"Well kids… from what I found out from Gleeful, Bill has six major pyramids around the world, plus his main one in Gravity Falls." Stan began. "Gleeful's group led a few recon missions to these pyramids, and in each one they're been to there was a tapestry on the wall in the main room, where the throne was."

"You mean…?" Dipper said in awe. "We can get them…? Save them all?"

"And then we can get Grunkle Ford and stop Bill?" Mabel then added.

Stan gives a small smile. "Yeah… that's the plan anyway." He then gets up to stir the soup. "Ford will be last, he will be the hardest to get since he is Bill's puppet." He ended that last phrase with a bitter taste to it. Bill was going to pay for making his brother a puppet.

Dipper then gets up, a huge grin on his face. "So where is the nearest pyramid!?" he asked. "When can we go!?"

Stan raises a hand. "Calm down, Dipper. You're getting excited like when you talk about your nerd stuff." He ignores the annoyed glare from his nephew. "The nearest one is actually in New Jersey… for some ungodly reason… Gleeful said that McGucket's tapestry was there."

Mabel gives a questioning look. "McGucket? Why would Bill put him in New Jersey?"

Dipper then states, "He went to the same college as Great Uncle Ford… that's how they met… Isn't the college in New Jersey?"

Stan thought about it for a minute. "Yeah… I think it was…" He claps his hands together. "Alright kids, starting tomorrow we are heading to New Jersey, I'll contact Gleeful tonight before bed to let him know."

"YEAH!" the twins cheered in unison, fists in the air. "PINES, PINES, PINES, PINES!" This was the first time they were truly excited about something since making that plan to save Ford.

After an hour the soup was done and the three of them sat at the small table eating. Stan glances at the kids, seeing them poking each other to try to annoy each other, but the annoyance turns into small giggles, like young children. In some way it was like they didn't leave the Shack… they were still acting like the close siblings that they were, and Stan couldn't be happier about that. Every day he wishes that Mabel and Dipper will never drift apart like himself and Ford.

That night when the kids went to bed Stan went to his radio and contacted Gleeful. For a minute there was static and then his voice came on in its normal Southern drawl.

 _"_ _Bud Gleeful, over."_ The voice said.

"Roger, this is Stan Pines, we are heading out to New Jersey tomorrow morning, over."

 _"_ _Roger, alright, Stanfo- I mean, Stanley Pines, my group is in New York we'll meet you there, over."_

"Roger…" Stan said as he ended the transmission, thick with sudden emotion. For thirty years, before Bill had taken over the world, he stole his brother's identity after faking his own death, going by the name Stanford Pines. When he introduced himself however he always said "Stan Pines", using his actual shortened name. He could never be called Ford, although one person asked about that when he first started using the name "Stanford", and his response was punching the guy in the face.

Stan then hobbles over to his sleeping area and lays down. He had many layers of knitted blankets and throw blankets made by Mabel, a lot of them had his symbol on it, but he liked the one where Mabel put all four Pines' symbols on a dark blue one the best. As he settled to go to sleep he glanced at the door to the twins' small room.

"I wonder who will get killed this time in my nightmare tonight…" Stan hoarsely whispered as he closed his eyes, a few tears escaping.


	8. Chapter 8: The Not So Open Road

**Chapter 8: The Not So Open Road**

Early in the morning before they left for New Jersey both Dipper and Stan hunted for some small game to stock up on some food.

They both brought back a few small squirrels, a couple of hares, and they got a few magpies that had stayed around in the Midwest since the weather was still decent before the cold front came in. They each had stuffed their game in the sacks provided by Mabel and when they returned to the RV they stuffed them in the fridge.

Mabel was ripping out the pathetic spot they called a garden. She took the few vegetables that grew and ripped out roots and put them in a sack, she would replant them later and they would still grow a bit. She took whatever seeds she could find and put them in the label jars in one of the drawers in the kitchen area.

"Ya kids ready?" Stan called out from the front, buckling himself in. He started the RV, noticing the gas gage was a quarter full. They would have to stop to get gas during the trip.

"Ready, Grunkle Stan!" Mabel called out. She sat at the table with Dipper with her knitting stuff, making another sweater.

"What design are you doing now?" Dipper asked.

"I'm making one for McGucket," she replied happily. "He's gonna need one since its getting cold." She knitted with great speed and accuracy, not missing a stitch.

Mabel was always gifted when it came to crafts. She had been knitting since she was very young, being taught by the twins' grandmother. She knew how sew as well, and crotchet, and she knew how to make clay flower pots and mugs. She was just in general more creative than Dipper, often thinking outside the box when it came to certain things. Her natural silliness is what helped Dipper solve the mystery of who really founded Gravity Falls.

Dipper smiles slightly, "Alright, you do what you do best." He then gets his book and begins reading again.

"How do you think we can rescue McGucket from the tapestry?" Mabel then asked softly, putting a pause to her knitting.

Her twin brother lifts up his head from his book, his face contorted with confusion. "You know what… I actually have no idea…" Dipper was so excited about rescuing the others that he hadn't really thought about how to save them. He then gently shuts the book and puts it to the side.

"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper called out towards the front.

His grunkle responded, "Yeah?"

"Do you know how we are supposed to release everyone from their tapestry…?" Mabel then asked.

Silence.

Mabel cocks an eyebrow. "Grunkle Stan?"

"… I actually don't know…" there was a pause. "But… Gleeful said Gideon ripped a few of those pages out from Journal 2 pertaining to about Bill… about how his magic works. Gleeful thinks there may be a way to reverse Bill's magic."

Dipper digs through his memory banks of Journal 3. He remembered a few things about Bill in that one… except it said "Do not summon at all cost" and about how to not let him into your mind. There was nothing about his magic in depth let alone a reversal of it.

Mabel was already halfway done with the sweater when they entered Pennsylvania. She then sewn on the spectacles that represented the old man in its center, finally finished about halfway through the state. The sweater was a brown color, looking very earthy. The glasses were black framed, very similar to both Ford's and Stan's glasses.

"And done!" Mabel chirped happily. She held it up, a big smile on her face. The sweater fell out of her hands as the RV suddenly ran over something and Stan swerved. "Grunkle Stan…?" her voice suddenly filled with worry.

"Kids hang on, this is gonna get a bit bumpy! We've ran into some of Cipher's… friends." Stan then shouted as he swerved the RV towards the right. Both of the kids were thrown onto the ground, Dipper's book flying off the table and it hits Mabel in her head.

"OW!" Mabel cried out. "Dipper! How about you read a lighter book for once!? Or a comic like a normal boy?!"

"Um no, string theory is interesting!" Dipper retorts, rubbing his arm from it hitting the ground.

"Sting cheese is interesting, not your stupid thick book of string whatever hitting my head!"

Both kids then screamed as a giant winged, demonic looking bird hits the window that was by the table and cracks it. The crack makes a spider web looking design across the glass, going from the center to the edges. Soon another hits it and crashes through, glass flying. To make sure Mabel didn't get most of the cuts Dipper threw himself over her, the back of his neck get nicks.

"Makes up for the book, right?" Dipper hissed as the glass cut his skin.

The demonic bird was large, about the size of an average Great Dane. Its feathers were a bright scarlet, the edges tinged an indigo, its tail feathers becoming spiked and sharp looking like knives. Its wings weren't a specific color… but the faces of previous victims, all distorted in pained and fearful expressions, some extremely bloodied or torn up beyond recognition of a human face. The beak was pure black and when it opened the monster cawed at such a high pitch that the kids had to cover their ears, whatever glass was around cracked.

Mabel reached for her bag that had been by her seat, now toppled over. Inside it had her handgun and her grappling hook and a few things of yarn. She made her way for the hand gun and as she turned to face the demon it started pecking at Dipper.

"OW!" he screamed, his face got sliced by the beak, blood now rapidly dripping from the wound. "GET OFF OF ME!" it began pecking at his head, as if gesturing to the pine tree hat…

"Get away from my brother!" screamed Mabel as she quickly aimed and shot at the bird. It screeched loudly at her and with its large wingspan knocked her to the ground, causing the gun to fall out of her hand and slide under the rusty stove. She had the wind knocked out of her for a moment and was slightly disorientated.

The demonic bird screeches again as it used its feet to grip Dipper's shoulders, the talons cutting into them. As blood soaked the white of his sweater he was yanked backwards, being lifted from the ground. He screams loudly, the talons feeling like knives ripping into his flesh.

"Dipper!" Mabel gets up clumsily and grabs her twin's arm. "I got you! Grunkle Stan, we need help!" the RV was then swerved to the left, whether it was intentional or not, causing the demon to slam into the wall, releasing its grip on the boy. Dipper falls to the ground with a groan of pain, both arms crossing his chest so his hands rested on his shoulders.

The demon squawked loudly, shaking its head. Mabel went and grabbed her gun from underneath the stove as it was distracted. With great accuracy she aims for the eyes of the demonic bird and pulled the trigger three times. However, because of Stan swerving the RV, and much cussing, trying to shake off the flock of the demons, Mabel's bullets only hit its wings.

Dipper takes his hands off his shoulders, covered in blood, and makes a grab for the switchblade knife he kept in his pants pocket. The demonic bird at this point was screeching and was making its way to Mabel. With a yell Dipper jumps up from his spot and plunges his knife deep into the back of the demon, black, thick fluid spewed out.

Mabel had gasped because the monster was so close to her face, ready to slice at it with its beak. It did a soft squawk and fell to its side, more of the demon's blood flowing out of it. Mabel gets up as another bird comes in the window, perched menacingly.

"I'm not dealing with that…" Dipper grumbled as he took a knee, his face covered in a sheen of sweat. He was looking a bit pale and now much of the arms of the sweater were a bright scarlet, now splattered black from the demonic bird, with blood from his shoulder.

Stan suddenly then hit the brakes of the RV, causing the bird to slam into the frame of the window, falling backwards onto the ground. Stan floors the gas and there was a sickening _crunch!_ He sped up and went off the road and soon they pulled to a stop at a parking garage.

"Kids… I think we lost them…" Stan called to them heavily. It seemed he was out of breath, now the adrenaline was seeping away.

The adrenaline was seeping from Dipper as well as he then finally collapsed onto the ground. His sister was at his side, carrying a first aid kit she grabbed from by the table, knowing that he had his injury. She helped her brother take off his sweater so she could get to his shoulders, him wearing a now red stained t-shirt that used to be white.

"Those are deep… you actually may need stitches…" Mabel whispered, trying to stay calm. What she wanted to so was scream loudly and cry.

His shoulders were ripped and jagged, as if someone was ripping fabric. Blood was pooling out too fast… he was looking paler by the second, his brown eyes drooping with exhaustion. He passes out as Mabel calls for their grunkle, her voice cracking with worry.

All Dipper saw inside his mind once he was out was a single glowing, golden eye, the sound of cackling echoing.


	9. Chapter 9: The Spectacles

**Chapter 9: The Spectacles**

 _"_ _Hahahaha!"_

The shrill laughter from Bill Cipher as he sat on his throne, in his normal triangular form, was full of pure joy, as if he were a small child. In a blue flamed circle in front of him, almost like a TV, he watched as the Pines family was trying to avoid a horde of his pets.

"You bastard!" Ford screams from the foot of the throne, his neck once again held by a metal collar. "You promised you wouldn't hurt them!"

"I did, Stanford." Bill replies as something that resembled a martini appeared in his hand, a light purple liquid. "I'm not hurting them… I'm right here. Those demons are hurting them." He gives a laugh. "You really need to learn to make a better contract, Ford."

Ford glares angrily. When he made the deal with Bill he had asked for his brother and the kids not to be harmed in any way by Cipher. As he thought about it he said "you" to Cipher, as him physically. Ford gives himself a six-finger face palm.

"God, I'm such an _idiot_!" Ford screams as Bill laughs.

"Figured it out Fordsy?" Bill taunted as he continued to watch his amusement. He saw that Mabel was shooting a gun as well. "You told _me_ not to harm them in any way, so I'm not. So, I've sent others to do it for me!"

"YOU DOUBLE CROSSING-"

Bill cuts him off, "What did you expect, Stanford? You made a deal with a _demon_ , smart guy!"

Ford yanks at his collar, enraged. First Bill used his body to go after Dipper… now this? Ford was fully aware of the actions Bill does when possessing his body. He saw the way he beat Dipper, just to heal him as if nothing happened. When Dipper shot Ford's body, he felt everything, internally screaming from the pain. He was proud Dipper would do that, to kill him so he could free of Bill, but it still damned hurt.

Bill wanted Dipper… whether it was just to get at Ford or what…

He will _not_ let Bill take Dipper.

* * *

Dipper woke up in something soft, and what it looked like was a hospital bed as his eyes fluttered open to seek his surroundings.

Something inside his chest fluttered. Was all this just a bad dream from a coma? Had he had been climbing a tree in Gravity Falls with Mabel and fell and hit his head? Did Bill not exist, or the aliens, or the journals?

But that would've been too good to be true.

After shaking his head and recovering from being disorientated from waking up, he took a good look around. The walls were cracked and yellow with discoloration. Picture frames were fallen and the glass of them shattered. Papers were thrown askew everywhere, as if someone had thrown them in a panic. Every edge seemed to be coated in thick dust, only few fingerprints were around and they seemed to be recent.

Dipper moved his shoulders and hissed in pain. He looks at them, both were thickly covered with white bandages, some dark brown dried through; the bandages covered both his shoulders and went around his bare chest. His brown eyes widened as he remembered the demonic bird grabbing him.

Those things were after _him_.

The monster had been pecking by his hat and tried to take him away. Bill was sending monsters to attack them to try to persuade the young man to join him. It was as if the family was attacked so much then Dipper would have no choice but to join Bill to save them.

 _Well, asshole, you're in for a rude awakening._ Dipper thought to himself angrily as he got up from his bed and puts on a clean blue sweater, in its center was a book with a pine tree on its cover, and his normal pine tree hat. _Because we are coming after you and getting Great Uncle Ford back…!_

"DIPPER!"

The boy was then crushed by the sudden hug of his older twin sister. Mabel held him tightly, her arms more around his lower chest so she wouldn't hit his shoulders, as she was crying with happiness. How long was he out anyway…?

"I thought you weren't going to wake up!" Mabel cried, her voice thick with emotion. "You had lost so much blood… you were going into shock…!"

"Hey…" Dipper says calmly. "I'm okay now, thanks to Nurse Mabel no doubt, right?" he gives his sister a small smile.

She nods. "I… had to stitch your shoulders up… but it was hard without the right tools. Grunkle Stan managed to find a hospital and I used the sterile stuff in the packages to help you." She then gives him a smile. "Now I'm glad you made me read that book about first aid and even those medical procedure books, even if they were thick and gross…"

Dipper gives a small laugh, "See? Books aren't bad!"

"Yeah!" Mabel laughs back. She grabs his hand gently. "Let's go tell Grunkle Stan and the others you're okay!"

"Others…?" he asked, his curiosity now getting the best of him.

"Yeah… we managed to get by New York, so Bud Gleeful and his group met us here." she explained. Mabel then led Dipper to the cafeteria where a bunch of people were sitting, eating food out of small bowels. They raised their heads when the twins entered, they all started to clap.

"Well, I'll be damned!" the southern drawl of Bud Gleeful cheered with enthusiasm as he approached them. "You actually survived that, young Dipper Pines!" he goes to give Dipper a firm pat on the shoulder until he realizes that's where the injuries were. "Oh, sorry! I actually forgot that's where you got hurt…"

Dipper waves it off. "It's okay, you didn't hit it so you're good." A small chuckle comes from the both of them.

"You've gotten taller!" Bud exclaimed. "I remember when you were shorter than your sister!"

The boy squints his eyes angrily as he shouts, "ONE MILIMETER! YOU COULDN'T EVEN TELL!" Mabel laughs at him and soon others joined.

Stan then approached them and gave Dipper a small hug, careful of his shoulders. "Good to see you back among the living, kiddo." The young teenaged boy gives him a hug back, mentally hissing in pain from his shoulders.

"Stanley was telling me on how you've been hunting, and that you're pretty good at it." Bud chipped in. "He even said you took down your first deer within a few shots."

The young boy smiles, liking the praise. "Yeah, hunting is actually kind of fun. At first I was really terrible, I kept scaring everything away. It takes a lot of strategy-"

Stan interrupts with his usual blunt demeanor, "Don't turn a manly sport into something nerdy, Dipper." The teenager smiles as his grunkle gives a slight chuckle, "I'm messing with ya, kiddo!" He then takes off Dipper's usual pine tree hat and gave the boy's brown hair a tussle and puts the hat back, but pulling it over his eyes in a joking manner.

As Dipper laughs Mabel then grabs his hand again and leads her brother to a table and goes and gets them some food. In a bowl was some sort of stew. Dipper takes a bite, it was a little bitter, but it was food nonetheless and he was starving. He then asks his sister, "How long was I out for?" going for another bite.

"About a week, you'd only wake up for a minute or some to drink something then crash right back to sleep." She replied as she stirred her stew.

He about choked on a chunk of potato. "A _week_!?" His thoughts went over to when he was with Bill in the woods.

 _I'll give you two weeks, Pine Tree._

And one of them was gone, just like that.

 _How the hell are we supposed to get the others, rescue Ford, and defeat Bill in a week!?_ Dipper was screaming in his mind, his eyes now glancing at everyone frantically. Could be Bill possessing someone right now… watching him!? Amused that he is failing!?

"Hey, Dip'n Dot, are you okay?" Mabel asks gently as she places a hand on his arm, he seemed to be shaking.

"How far are we from New Jersey?" he firmly asks.

Mabel cocks her head to the side. "Um… a few hours I think…? That's what Grunkle Stan said-"

"When are we leaving?"

As Mabel opened her mouth to say something their grunkle walked over, most likely hearing their conversation. "We are leaving in an hour, I just wanted to make sure you were okay before we made any moves." He then sits next to his niece. "We are just grabbing any medical supplies and medicine. I also had to go find a new RV… ours… kind of broke… there was two small rooms so I moved your guys' stuff to them."

"I don't to be in my own room, Grunkle Stan." Mabel whispered.

"Me neither." Dipper joined.

Stan gives a small smile. "I figured that, so you two are sharing and _I'm_ actually getting a bed! Trust me, my back has been _killing_ me from sleeping on that seat!" He then laughs as he puts a hand to his lower back.

Bud then claps his hands loudly to get everyone's attention. Once the murmuring died down the stared at him with admiration. He must've been a good leader to them.

"Hello, y'all!" Bud started. "Now that young Dipper Pines is awake we will be heading to New Jersey to secure Old Man McGucket's tapestry." Some claps followed. "So, gather as much stuff as you can… I'm talking blankets, medicines, packaged food and water, and whatever little stuff you think will be necessary. We will all be leaving in an hour!"

People then got up from their seat and began to leave the cafeteria. Dipper finally noticed that there were a few teenagers among them, small children, some elderly, and many young adults. He began to wonder where Bud found them all as he didn't recognize any of them from Gravity Falls.

After the hour passed all the people went to their respective cars and vans. Stan leads the kids to a much newer looking RV. Once inside Stan started the RV, the kids sitting at the slightly bigger table by the west window.

Soon everyone was on the road again, the twins noticing that the small children in the cars were looking out into the scenery. It seemed everyone had a new air about them, like they were filled with hope.

Bill can be defeated. He _will_ be defeated.

However, a few hours later…

Dipper slips into his and Mabel's new room in the RV, Waddles curled up where his sister had her knitting stuff. The pink pig raises his head and Dipper gives him a pat on the head. He sits on the bed and pulls out one of his journals and rips a blank page out. After a moment's hesitation he began to write.

Once he was done he folds it up gently into a small square. His chest felt heavy as he looked through some of Mabel's stuff, trying to look for a place for the note. He places it at the very bottom of her craft basket, somewhere she will eventually find it, but not too soon. After he hides it he goes into the next room that was now Stan's and finds the memory gun in a box next to the small bed. Dipper picks it up and types in the information about the note and its hiding place.

"I'm sorry Mabel if it comes to that…" he whispers to himself as he puts the gun to his head. "It's a last resort… and I hope it will never come to it." He pulls the trigger and he stands there. "Huh…? What am I doing here?" he absently puts back the memory gun, not even thinking why he had it.

"Dipper!" he heard Mabel shout. "We're here… and you got to see this!"

Dipper exits the room and gets to the front the RV. Outside the window was a giant pyramid, very similar to Bill's in Gravity Falls. It was massive, a dull yellow in color. The pyramid looked as if it was literally just Bill with the exception of not having an eye. The entrance seemed to be at the north side of the pyramid, a black hallow.

"So… how do we get in?" Dipper asks, trying to see if there are any guards or traps.

There was a knock on the RV door and Bud enters, some papers in his hands. They were yellowed with age. "Well, hello!" Bud greeted. "I brought the papers you asked for, Stanley, where do you want them?"

"Give them to Dipper." Stan replied. Bud then hands the papers over to a surprised Dipper. "Before you ask, Dipper, you're getting the papers because out of everyone here, you're the one who truly knows how my brother wrote the journals. You've read and lived the journals, and I know you asked a bunch of questions to him about it, so you should be able to figure it out."

Dipper begins to read about Bill Cipher from Journal 2. It seemed a lot more positive than the entry from the third journal that Dipper had found. It was stating how Bill was an all-powerful being that had the ability show Ford the knowledge of the universe, and it told how to summon him. There was some basic magic at the bottom of it as well, words spelt oddly and circles were drawn all over.

"It looks like you can draw this circle on the ground and say some incantations…" Dipper paraphrased. "If we could figure out the right one and maybe place McGucket in the center we can save him." He points at one of the words: the Latin word meaning "reverse". _This has to be it…_ he thought to himself.

"Like a transmutation circle in alchemy?" Mabel asked, breaking his train of thought, trying to understand. Everyone stares at her. "What? Soos and I watched a lot of anime at the Shack before…" Mabel gives and smile and shrugs.

Dipper then blinks. "Yeah… similar…" he then rereads everything a second time. "We need to get in there…" gazing at the pyramid.

Bud then says, "Shouldn't be hard. There's only a few monsters at each pyramid, unless Bill was here. If Bill was here it would be crawling with more. Think of these demons here as house nannies, or house-keeping so to speak."

"So, we go in, kill the few demons, save McGucket and go on our happy merry way?" Stan asks with a grin. He already had a hunting rifle in his hands and cocks it, ready to go. "I'm in."

Bud nods, agreeing.

"Let's go get Old Man McGucket!" Dipper cheers, giving his sister a fist bump without even looking. That's how good they were being the Mystery Twins.

In less than fifteen minutes Dipper was wearing his hunting gear, but kept his normal hat instead of the camouflage one. His rifle was slung over his shoulder and a pistol in a holster at his side. Mabel wore a very similar attire to Dipper, except all the green was replaced with a pale pink. She held her grabbling hook in her hand, excited to use it.

The rescue group consisted of Dipper, Mabel, Stan, Bud, and a couple of the young adults. They approached the pyramid, all with guns in hand, ready for anything. Only a few small demons were around, but Dipper and Stan took them down silently with a knife with a silent agreement between the two. It seemed more logical to knife them instead of drawing attention with the sound of a firing gun.

Once inside the main hall of the pyramid, what caught their attention was the giant throne in its center. The throne was made of the innocent people, faces contorted with pain and fear for eternity. On the wall behind it was the tapestry of McGucket, his spectacles symbol on the lower border.

Dipper had brought with him a can of blue spray paint and began drawing the circle on the ground he saw in the pages. After drawing the small symbols, many meaning "reverse" and "future", on the perimeter and drawing the design, a reverse hourglass, in the center and steps away. It seemed to glow for a moment…

Mabel got her grappling hook and shot herself toward McGucket's tapestry. Once she was up there she took him off the wall and lowered herself to the ground. She quickly brings the tapestry to the center. "So… what do we do?" she then asks, putting the grappling hook away at her left hip.

Dipper goes through his memory banks, remembering an incantation. He then began to say the incantation in a low voice, "* _Convertere as pristinum novum amplecti futura et praeterita obliviscentes tenebris._ " The circle then glowed again, but it dimmed quickly.

Mabel then had an idea. "Hey… since you, Grunkle Stan, and I are part of the wheel… what if we held hands and did the incantation together?"

"It's worth a shot, Pumpkin!" Grunkle Stan then said excitedly as he approaches the circle. He and Mabel held hands as Dipper grabbed for theirs, a small circle of them.

"Ready?" Dipper asked. They nodded.

 _"_ _Convertere as pristinum novum amplecti futura et praeterita obliviscentes tenebris!"_

The three Pines, the three of the wheel, said the incantation over and over as the circle glowed. The tapestry glowed a brilliant white and gotten a bit larger. It was then replaced by an elderly man, green lensed glasses on his face, and casts on his arms, him having a long white beard and wearing a brown patched up hat. His brown overalls over a dirty white t-shirt only had one strap functioning, the other slid off his shoulder. One his feet were not shoes, but something that looked like bandages wrapped around only the middle of his feet.

The old man looks up, seeing the three. "Woah! What did I miss?" He gets up and looks around. "This seems like a different place than before…" he puts a hand to head and scratches.

"Yeah, McGucket… it's been a year and a half." Stan explained. "Ford… gave himself to Bill to try to save myself and the kids…"

McGucket gives a soft sigh. "Ford would do something like that… let me guess, you three are trying to get the wheel back together right?" He gives a half-toothed grin as he slaps his knee.

Dipper nods. "Yeah, we are going to rescue Great Uncle Ford and defeat Bill, once and for all." His voice was filled, at least he hoped, with determination.

"Well, you got the spectacles now!" McGucket gives a wink.

*Authors note: Reverse to the original form, forget the dark past and embrace the new future.


	10. Chapter 10: The Star with the Eye

**Chapter 10: The Star with the Eye in the Center**

 _"_ _WHAT!?"_

Bill was a deep red, his eye pure black with a yellow slit of a pupil. All around him his normal blue flames were a crimson red. The fire spread throughout the room, turning each blue flamed torch into a red one. The fire licked up the walls, nothing to burn.

Ford stayed close to the throne, the flames getting too near him. He could tell Bill was beyond pissed. But… what was he so mad about?

In front of the throne groveled a low level demon, looking to what everyone would call an "ogre". It was shaking with fear, its black, beady eyes wide.

 _"_ _So… you're telling me that those… MEAT BAGS ENTERED THE NEW JERSEY PYRAMID AND FREED SPECTACLES!?"_ Bill was screaming in his shrill tone, the flames getting more intense with each passing word, cracking the walls and seeping through.

The lowly demon slowly nodded, shaking in the knees.

Bill snapped his fingers with the look of death in his eyes, screaming loudly in full on fury. The lowly demon screamed as its very fabric of being was being torn apart. All was left was a pile of ribbon-like flesh and bones. With another snap it was incinerated with red fire.

The triangular demon then claps his hands, more demons arriving. " _I want every pyramid heavily guarded! Texas, Greenland, Italy, ALL OF THEM!"_ Bill ordered, his flames so intense that Ford's clothes were singed. The demons then rushed out, preparing troops.

"Well, well, Cipher," Ford then grinned, his voice amused. "Seems like you're going to be in trouble." He closes his eyes with a laugh.

Cipher then appears in front of his puppet's face as his eyes opened. Ford jumped, startled. Bill's eye was still pitch black, his pupil now red, clearly infuriated.

"I suggest you watch your tone, Stanford." Bill stated. "You don't want to do anything you will regret even when you're long dead, right?" Ford knew exactly what he meant and kept his mouth shut. "Now…" Bill continued. "To make sure those meat bags don't get Gideon Gleeful…"

* * *

According to Bud Gleeful the next stop was Texas.

Texas is where Gideon's tapestry was. When Mabel asked about why in Texas the older Gleeful explained that their family was from there.

Fiddleford McGucket sat in the RV with the twins, them explaining to him what happened in the last year and a half. At the front of the RV Stan and Bud were discussing over a map, finding the best route.

"It seems a lot has happened…" McGucket finally whispered as the twins had finished their tale. He was wearing the sweater that Mabel had made for him, it looking actually a little big for him. Apparently him being in the tapestry didn't freeze time, he had new wrinkles and his bears was longer. His body was thinner than before, and he ate at least three bowls of the hare soup that Stan had made before finally feeling full.

Dipper then asks him, "Were you aware of anything while being a tapestry?"

"I reckon I do… a little bit." McGucket replied, slapping his knee. "I remember Bill going there once in a while… but…"

"Don't force yourself, McGucket." Dipper says to him. "It'll come to you in time." The old man then nods. Dipper excuses himself and goes up front, Bud and Stan arguing about a certain route.

"Stanley, that's the fastest way-" Bud was explaining, but was interrupted.

"No, there is too many demons in that sector." Stan argued. "I'm not bringing the kids through that! And you have youngsters with your group as well!"

Bud grumbles, "Well, we do have _weapons_ , Stanley."

"If we can find a store that has a sniper rifle or more scopes for the hunting rifle, you can park a distance away and I'll get the numbers down." Dipper then walked into the conversation.

Stan looked uneasy. "I don't know, Dipper-"

"Come on, Grunkle Stan, you know I can do it, long distance is my specialty." The boy insisted. "And we're not kids anymore you know… Mabel and I know how to handle ourselves." In a way Dipper regretted saying that. A sad look passed over Stan's face, as if he knew he was going to be told that someday, but it seemed too soon.

After a long minute Stan finally said, "Alright… we'll… stop somewhere and get you a sniper rifle I guess…" he sounded uneasy. "We'll go with your route, Bud. And we'll go with your plan, Dipper."

Dipper gives a victorious smile and goes to Mabel, who was knitting again. This time she was knitting a powder blue sweater. She was making it about the same size as McGucket's, the center having a star with an eye in the middle. It was for Gideon. Mabel had always been good with her crafts, but now after knitting pretty much nonstop for a year and a half she has gotten to the point where she can make sweaters within a couple of hours.

After the completion of the sweater she holds it up. "As much as he was a creep back then, I do hope he likes it!" she gives a smile.

"He's the reason why we were able to get you from the bubble." Dipper says as he sits next to her, wincing from his shoulders. "He made the choice to let us through as he went and fought Bill. That's why he was in that cage."

Mabel gives him a wide eyed look. She had completely forgotten about that. She nods as she folds the sweater neatly and places it on the table. "And when I see him I will thank him, I didn't when we were doing the wheel the first time…" she kind of felt guilty about it.

The RV started moving, Dipper looking out the window. Mabel was making sure they had some water stocked up, recording the number and then handing one to her brother and to McGucket, whom after drinking the water fell asleep. The twins sat in silence, wondering what was going to happen next.

At some point Dipper had dozed off, his mind a dark empty space. In his dream he was walking around, wondering why everything was just black. He finds a door, a deep red wood with a bronze handle. His hand reach to it and firmly grasps the handle and clicks it open.

A pair of golden eyes appeared in the doorway.

Dipper yelps and jumps back, hands going to his gun in his holster. However, his hand went to an empty space, the gun was nowhere to be seen. With his heart pounding, he was panicking as he backed up.

 _"_ _Hello, Pine Tree!"_ Bill Cipher greeted in Dipper's mind space.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Dipper screams at him. "GET THE HELL OUT!"

The scenery changed all of a sudden, he was now in Bill's grip, along with Mabel. Bill was so massive, his pupil the shape of a pine tree. Then to the shooting star. Dipper's heart drops, this was when Bill was about to kill Mabel.

 _No. No. NO!_

Bill fingers snap and Mabel screams in pain, dying. Her face going pale, her voice dying out… her body going limp…

 _"_ _NO!"_

Dipper screams as he was suddenly being shaken, his sister looking at him with worried brown eyes. He was shaking and breathing heavily, and the moment he saw his twin his eyes filled with tears and he hugs her tightly.

 _It was just a nightmare… a nightmare. It wasn't real… Mabel is right here… she's alive…_ Dipper repeated this in head over and over as he just hugged his sister, tears streaming down his face.

Mabel knew he had a nightmare, and hugged him close too. For the last few months her brother has been waking up in cold sweats and crying and as soon as he sees Mabel hugs her.

"It's okay, Dipper, I'm okay." She whispers to him. Her brother nods as she rubs his back to comfort him.

After about a half hour Dipper calmed down and wiped his tears away. He takes a few deep breaths to calm himself and to regain composure. Dipper then gets up from his seat and goes to the small room that they shared saying he needed to rest for a bit, Mabel instantly worried. He assured her that he was fine and that if he was needed he would be in the room.

The bed they shared was about the same size as the one from the previous RV, covered in all the blankets Mabel had made. A lot of the blankets had a pine tree and a shooting star woven together all over the blanket. Dipper goes to his right-handed side of the bed, the side he normally sleeps on, and sits down. He takes a journal out from one of his boxes of stuff, a black covered book with a green pine tree on it, and went to the next blank page. His pen scribbled frantically as he described his nightmare, all the details. Once he was done he goes through the book, noticing he's had the same nightmare multiple times.

Staring at the entries of his journal, his heart felt heavy. His sister and his grunkles were the only family members he had left. His twin was everything to him, they had been together through thick and thin their entire lives. If something happened to Mabel…

The RV stopped and Grunkle Stan called, "Dipper!"

Dipper hides his journal again in his box and walks out of the small room and to the front of the RV. Bud Gleeful was holding a black sniper rifle and a box of ammo for it. As soon as Bud saw the teenager he holds out the gun to him.

"I stopped somewhere and got it," Bud explained in his usual drawl. "I have a faster car than this RV, so it made sense that I could catch up."

Dipper holds the sniper, a grin on his face. It looked much more complex than his hunting rifle, but at the same time it felt familiar in his hands. He takes the strap and slings it over his shoulder.

"Ready whenever you guys are." He told the older men.

Stan then walks toward the small RV kitchen and messes with the ladder attachment that was on the ceiling. He removes it and attaches it to the appropriate hinges and opens the hatch that leads to the roof. Stan gestures for Dipper to follow and climbs the ladder.

The scenery before them was a dead landscape, the ground a mixture of orange and brown dirt, and any trees was just black twigs coming from the ground. They were literally on top of a large hill, before them was a large horde of demons. At some distance away there were more.

"Oh, shit…" Dipper whispered. "That... is a lot more than I thought."

"Same here," Stan agreed. "It looks as though they are traveling the same road we are. No doubt Bill found out about us saving McGucket. He probably sent in reinforcements to try to block us."

"Well… I might as well get started." Dipper then gets into a comfortable position and props his sniper rifle. His eye goes to the scope and he zooms in. He aims for the head and pulls the trigger. The bullet zips through the air and hits right on the mark. The teenager then heard other gunshots as well. Stan was in position too with a different sniper rifle, taking out some demons too. Bud was more by his car with another sniper rifle. A few other people were contributing too.

"Did you think I was just gonna let you do it alone, Dipper?" Grunkle Stan asks with a wink.

Dipper gives a small smile and continues his mission. A few of the demons noticed the gunshots and started coming towards them, but with the snipers they didn't get very far. After an hour or so the number dwindled down drastically. With a signal from Stan the teenager follows him back inside the RV. Stan then starts the RV and floors it toward the few remaining demons, swerving out of the way to dodge them and to confuse them.

Bud radios Stan to tell him the coordinates of the next pyramid just as they passes a sign that said "Welcome to Texas". Stan gets on the nearest freeway and follows the coordinates, Bud's car in front leading. The line of cars was going at top speed, each excited to get to their destination.

Dipper was sitting in the passenger seat of the RV when the image of the pyramid started getting bigger and bigger. This pyramid was similar to the last one, except it was more of a brown color than yellow. The teenager says for his grunkle to stop and he climbs onto the roof of the RV, it now slowing to a complete stop. Dipper gets his sniper and looks at the pyramid through the scope.

 _Three demon guards…_ Dipper thought to himself. _Probably more inside…_

He aimed for the one closest and pulls the trigger. As that one fell to the ground dead, the other looks around confused until Dipper sent another bullet straight at it. He then went back inside the RV and told Stan to continue forward. Stan pulls up by the pyramid, Bud there as well.

McGucket gets out of the RV first, a bat in his hand. When Mabel had offered a gun the old man had declined. He claimed he wasn't sane enough to have one yet, he didn't trust himself and he didn't want anyone getting hurt. So, he stuck with a bat as it had the same weight to his banjo he used to use as a weapon.

"Alright guys," Dipper whispered as the group hugged the wall of the entrance of the pyramid. "There are most likely more demons inside… so be on the lookout."

The group enters the throne room, looking identical to the last one. The only difference was instead of McGucket's tapestry, there was Gideon's. Gideon's tapestry depicted him in its center with his symbol of the star with the eye as the bottom border.

And the room was clear of demons…

"Mabel, if you will." Dipper gestures from her to Gideon's tapestry. "May he have his knight in shining armor." He added with a smirk.

"Shut up!" his sister snapped as she took out her grappling hook. As she aimed the room shook, causing some people to lose their balance.

The throne crumbled, each person that was a piece of the throne fell and as some reanimated and ran away, others got crushed into powder. What was coming from beneath the throne was long looking, and it slithered out from the hole that was apparently underneath the throne.

Appearing in front of them was a giant demonic snake. Its scales were a bright orange color, its beady red eyes glowing with fury. The snake had long, sword-like fangs erupting from its mouth as it was open wide, hissing.

"Mabel… go after the tapesty…" Dipper ordered. "We'll distract this thing!" he gets out his pistol and shot at the snake, getting its attention. As it hissed and lunged at Dipper, he dodged it and Stan from a distance with his sniper shot the snake in the right eye.

Mabel shot her grappling hook toward Gideon and pulled herself to it. As she was flying through the air the snake saw it with his good eye and went to lunge again. The girl saw the snake move and with her free hand took out her pistol and shot its other eye as it barely just missed her. She gets to Gideon's tapestry and removes it quickly. She saw that the snake was shaking its head violently as more bullets began piercing it from a distance. Mabel saw this as her chance to lower herself down and run toward the exit.

The pyramid shook again as the snake used its tail-end to smack against the wall, Debris from above fell, huge chunks of rock beginning to fall. That's when Mabel got an idea…

"Guys!" she screamed out. Stan stopped shooting and looked over to his great niece as she ran to him, Gideon's tapestry draped over her left arm. "Keep getting it to hit the walls, maybe we can get this pyramid to crumble on top of it."

"Sounds like a plan, sweetie." Stan gives a thumbs up as the snake hissed loudly, now blindly lunging toward any noise. "You and your brother get out of here!" Mabel nods as she runs toward her brother, who had his pistol out, and grabbed his arm and began dragging him out.

Bud then approaches Stan. "I'm sorry in the past we didn't really get along, Stanley." He began as he shoots with the sniper at the wall for the snake to lunge at, hearing the ricochet.

"Yeah, but we're friends now, so we're good." Stan replies, following Bud's example.

"Just make sure Gideon is okay, ya hear?" Bud then states. "And get the rest of the wheel together, my group knows the other locations and I already had sent two groups for Soos and Pacifica. Defeat Bill, Stanley, you and the rest."

"Wait… what are you-?" Stan was trying to say but was interrupted when someone that was part of Bud's group began pulling Stan away, debris falling. "Bud?!" Stan screamed as the large man gave a salute and then was blocked by a rock. Everyone was outside at this point, except for Bud and one other person.

As Stan's brown eyes were wide with horror, being forced away by someone dragging him, the rest of the pyramid crumbled down. A loud hiss rang through the wasteland, a sound of death. As the dust settled around the group, Stan then fell to his knees after the dragging stopped.

"That idiot…" he whispered. "He sacrificed himself… and he didn't even get to see his kid…"

Dipper then takes off his hat, out of respect for the dead, and places it over his heart. Anyone else with a hat followed suit, all them hanging their heads low. Mabel chokes back a sob, gripping Gideon's tapestry in her hands. The group did a silent vigil for their fallen leader and comrade.

After mourning for a few minutes Dipper takes out his spray paint and makes a new circle. When he was done Mabel sets Gideon's tapestry in the center. The twins held hands and McGucket joins right after. Despite him still grieving, Stan goes over to the circle as well, knowing that he has to help.

The group says the incantation together in sync many times, the circle glowing a brilliant white. The tapestry changes form into a chubby boy with tall white hair. He was wearing a baby blue colored suit with a bolo tie, his shoes black, and a small pin of the American flag was over his left breast.

Gideon Gleeful looks around, seeing the group. "What… what in the world happened?" he asks, his voice slightly shaky.

"Your dad became a hero to make sure you would be saved…" Stan responds, his voice thick and hoarse.

The star with the eye in its center, Gideon, began to quiver his lip, and tears began to fall.


	11. Chapter 11: The Six-Fingered Hand's Day

**Chapter 11: The Six-Fingered Hand's Day**

Since day one Stanford Pines was a puppet for Bill Cipher to use, as agreed with their deal.

After a week of making the deal Ford was forced to where the stupid getup that he is now known for. He always had to wear the long yellow coat, the dress pants and shoes, the top hat, black gloves, and the bow tie. At one point he did wear a triangular eye patch over one of his eyes, but it was scrapped, Bill saying it was almost insulting to him because of his one eye. Ford still wore his glasses though, since obviously he has had vision problems for most of his life.

Ford's day starts the same every day. He wakes up in a cell with the collar and chain around his neck on a stiff bed. There is always a tiny plate of food and a glass of water on a small table in the corner, it was usually bread and an apple, depending on Bill's mood; if Bill was angry the food then becomes so disgusting it made prison food look like a five star rated meal.

After Ford would his food he sits in a chair where he had a pathetic excuse of a puzzle book waiting for him. It was infinite pages, with such simple puzzles that he could solve hundreds in less than an hour. Ford would normally try to sleep more, but his mind scape is always haunted by Bill.

These images that Bill implants in Ford's head is unspeakable. Many of the times it images of his family dying while he watches in agony. Sometimes it was when he and Stanley were younger, in their childhood, which they would be screamed at by their father, reminding Ford that night when his twin was kicked out and forced to be homeless. Other times it was when Bill actually killed Mabel, or even tortured Dipper.

And Bill loved to tell Ford on how he would use Dipper as his puppet, to torture his family and to kill his own sister. The images of Dipper with glowing, yellow eyes disturbs the old scientist.

As Ford sat in his cell, eating a pitifully small apple while doing his useless puzzle book, he hears a thunderous roar of flame. He sighs, he knows Bill is angry.

 _"_ _ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?"_ Bill roars in anger from his throne room. _"YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT THEY GOT GIDEON GLEEFUL!?"_ Something explodes, no doubt a wall was obliterated.

 _Good job, guys…_ Ford smiles to himself. He knew his brother and the kids would try to get the wheel back together. Ford knew this as soon as Bill had mentioned that Stan had been planning something. _Keep it up…_

Ford knew where the other tapestries were, he had visited them as Bill's puppet. Soos was in Mexico, the reason being because of his Latino heritage. Pacifica was in South America, and Bill's reason was because there was a lot of llamas there. Wendy was in Greenland, the land covered in ice and snow. And Robbie was in Italy, that being because his last name being Valentino.

Bill had odd ways of choosing the places for them…

Like how Fiddleford's tapestry was in New Jersey. Ford and Fiddleford went to college there together, at Backupsmore University. Or Gideon's was in Texas because of family being from there…

There was another roar and something else exploded. Bill was _pissed_. Ford had no doubt in his mind that at some point during the day Bill will use Ford to kill humans to calm his anger… memories of piling bodies fills Ford's mind as he shakes his head.

 _"_ _And now… you're telling me that the Question Mark and the Llama are missing too?!"_ Bill's shrill voice shrieks. The sounds of screaming demons fills the pyramid, Bill mercilessly killing them.

Bill Cipher then appears in front Ford, who had dropped his book and apple in the sudden surprise. The apple rolled on the ground in front of Bill, it started to shrivel up and brown and soon was turned into charcoal from his flames. It eroded away into dust.

"You and I are going to have a little _fun_ today, Fordsy!" Bill informed angrily, each word fueling his fire.

And Ford knew what he meant. He gets up and puts on his long yellow coat and accessories he absolutely hated. He fixed the top hat on his head so that it was straight/

Bill then snaps his fingers, the collar and chain around Ford's neck disappearing. The old scientist then ties up the bow tie to complete the look of the human puppet. Ford holds out his hand and Bill grasps it. Bill's form turned into stone as he went and possessed Ford's body. There was no time for cackling at the misery of Ford… he had people to kill.

 _Then_ he would cackle with joy.

Using Ford's body, Bill goes to his map of known human populated areas. He sees the biggest one had about 100,000 people living nicely in a city in the Midwestern part of the United States. Since day one this city had pledge its allegiance to Bill, putting up statues of him in his honor and worshiping him.

And he was going to _kill them all today._

 _All because Pine Tree and the rest of them had piss him off._

Bill uses Ford to snap his fingers, a portal forming in front of him. He steps through, seeing the town that worshipped him as a god.

 _And they were going to feel a demon's wrath…_

With a delirious cackle of laughter, Bill-Ford's hands glows with bright red flames. He throws the fire into the streets and it begins to spread. As soon as a flamed licked over a person, it slowly burned them alive as their skin turns into a charcoal black, splitting to have yellow fat and red blood escape their useless bodies.

People were screaming. People were praying. People were running. People were _dying_.

As Bill cackles as he uses his flames to engulf an entire building of innocent people, Ford was biting back his sorrow and guilt. Ford was aware of everything Bill did with his body… He felt the intense flames of Bill's killing his nerve endings in his hands. He felt his chest tighten with complete depression of sadness, seeing people begging to hold on to their lives.

Flames engulf the town, people screaming in pure agony. The dead lie in the streets, people burnt to a crisp. Some people who were still alive were trying to crawl away, the fat and blood oozing from their split skin. Bill uses his powers to lift many of the burning people and forces them into a certain shape… A shape of a throne.

 _"_ _I think I'll make a new throne for my main pyramid…"_ mused Bill. _"Oh… how these screams of eternal pain bring joy to me…!"_ The people screamed in agony, blood slowly dripping. He was using his powers to keep him alive for as long as he wanted, making them beg for death. But of course, Bill wouldn't give it to them.

Ford couldn't believe this was happening, his internal mind screaming with sorrow. He wanted Bill to stop, to stop making him kill innocent people. Ford knew Bill was doing it because of how the rest of the Pines were screwing the demon over.

 _But Bill is going to go after Dipper in less than a week…_ Ford thought in the deepest part of his mind.

 _Please… get the rest of the tapestries… hurry…_

* * *

 **AUTHORS NOTE:** Sorry for this slightly boring chapter after the last one. I figured people would want to know a bit about Ford's day with Bill and how Bill is angry about how they're getting the tapestries.

Thanks for reading everyone! It means a lot!

~Skye Hendersen~


	12. Chapter 12: Questions and Llamas

**Chapter 12: Questions and Llamas**

A small grave site was put a little ways from the collapsed pyramid, a small fire before the two wooden crosses.

On the one board attached to a cross for the young man that stayed with Bud it said how he was brave and an amazing big brother. The young man was only 18, leaving his two younger sisters and brother behind.

For Bud's it said how he was a great leader and brave. Gideon then adds about him being an amazing father, and how he will be missed so much. The young boy had found his father's hat he had always worn in Gravity Falls in his car and placed it before the makeshift grave.

"I'm so sorry, Dad…" Gideon whispers as tears fell. "I always treated you and Ma so terribly… I'm such a terrible son… and now you're gone, and I can never apologize for what I have done."

Mabel approaches him and puts a hand on his shoulder. "He knows you're sorry…" she tells him. "If he didn't forgive you or love you, why would he sacrifice himself to make sure you got out safely?" When the boy does a small gasp Mabel hugs him. "And I forgive you too… and thank you for letting my brother help save me."

"Mabel…" he responds. "… Thank you for your kindness… even though I truly don't deserve it…"

Mabel gives him a sad look. "Gideon… you made a mistake. Even Grunkle Ford and Dipper have made a bad deal with Bill." She tells him. "But, you know now what you did is wrong and that you want to be a good person. That's all it matters."

Gideon's eyes filled with tears as he then hugs her back. "Thank you, Mabel. And I'm sorry for all the trouble that I had caused you and your family… I even had summoned Bill because I was so angry... Maybe if I hadn't done that… we wouldn't be here now."

Dipper glances over from a little ways behind Mabel. He was there making sure that Gideon didn't try anything with his sister, even though the kid was on their side now, Dipper just didn't like the idea of him dating his sister. Or a lot of guys for that matter. It was a brother instinct to protect, even Stan didn't like it and was a great uncle.

"Gideon, either way Bill would've found a way to get back to our dimension. If he hadn't used you, I know he probably would've used me since I'm similar to Great Uncle Ford." Dipper then states as he walks up to them. "It's not your fault, it's not Great Uncle Ford's fault… it's _no one's._ It's all Bill's." Dipper starts fuming, just thinking of Bill was ticking him off. "That stupid, floating demonic triangle is a selfish, belittling, hubris _asshole_! He would kill his own kind no doubt just to get what he wants. Bill takes the one good thing about you and twists it up to something horrible for him to use for himself…"

Dipper then thought of how Mabel described how when she gave the rift to Bill willingly. He was using her sadness of not wanting summer to end to empower over her to get it. He used her innocence and trust and ripped it from her when he smashed the rift to unleash Weirdmageddon. Mabel still blames herself for it to this day, waking up from nightmares of that encounter and her Mabel Land bubble.

"Dipper…" Mabel whispers as she hugs him. "Don't get yourself worked up… you're still injured you know. Stress will make you heal less quickly…"

Dipper points at the stress lines by his eyes. "I kind of can't stop stressing… I've had anxiety all my life." He then absently rubs his shoulders gently, them throbbing from the recoil of the guns firing.

Mabel shrugs. "Yeah… you've had those since we were like, nine." She was actually starting to develop her own form of stress lines by her eyes, they were still very thin. She had honestly thought the lines run in the family as their dad had them, Grandpa Shermie had them, and now obviously the three most important men in her life right now have them.

Stan then walks over, still a sad look over his face. He had something in his hand, a small square of a note. He walked past the kids and went to Bud's grave. As Stan sighed sadly he digs a little bit by the cross so he could bury the note. After he was finished he walked back by the kids, Gideon shifting nervously.

"Come on, kiddos." He said hoarsely. "We gotta leave now… according to one of the people from Bud's group they had contact with the two groups that were in charge of getting Soos' and Pacifica's tapestries. We are gonna meet them at the border of Mexico."

Gideon hangs his head low at the mention of his late father. He looks around to see the group of people going to their respective vehicles, some children going with their parents.

"Come on, Gideon." Stan called out, he and the kids were already about half way to the RV. "You gotta come too." He was waving his arm over to get Gideon to follow.

"Me…?" Gideon questioned. "After all I've done to you and your family…? You would actually have me travel with you guys?"

Stan then walks over and puts a hand on the young boy's shoulder. "Look, kid, I know we've had our differences in the past… but, the time is different now. We have to band together to stop Bill. Yes, you've made bad choices, but that is the part of growing up, you live and learn. You lived with the choice of choosing Bill and you learned how terrible he is and then you made a choice to fight against him.

"You took your lesson in the end to help people. You _learned_ to be a better Gideon Gleeful. And you're still young, you're still gonna make a few bad choices… and take it from me, I've made many bad decisions in my youth. The difference between myself and you is that _you_ will make the better choice to be a better person before it becomes too late." He does a small pause then adds, "Besides… I owe your father, and he asked me to make sure you'll be okay. So, you're with us now."

Gideon looks up to Stan, tears in his eyes. He nods frantically and actually gives the old man a hug. He was apologizing for all he had done, and was thanking Stan for giving him a second chance. Stan then leads Gideon to the RV, Dipper and Mabel already inside, and takes the boy to the kitchen table.

Soon the RV starts and moves to their next destination. Mabel then gives Gideon the sweater she made him, him saying thanks and putting it on. The two talk for a few, even McGucket joining in on the conversation of what recently happened. Dipper still sat a little ways, reading.

"Dipper Pines," Gideon whispers to him when he addressed the brunette teenager. Dipper looks up, slowly closing his book. "I'm… just here to say thank you for what you said back there."

Dipper smiles. "Hey, it's no problem, man." He says it nonchalantly.

Gideon then smiles as he gets up and walks to the small kitchen, looking for a little snack. From his time in the tapestry he had lost weight just like McGucket. Dipper then follows, a slight dark thought in his head.

"Oh… and by the way…" Dipper says lowly to Gideon as he goes in the fridge and gets a couple of waters, handing one to Gideon. The teenager then moves his sweater slightly to reveal his gun at his holster. "Don't mess with my sister, got it? We won't have any problems." Dipper puts the fabric over again and gives an innocent smile, like he just didn't threaten someone. Gideon gives a wide-eyed look and nods. "Alright then!" Dipper then sits back at the table next to Mabel.

The skies outside became dark over the course of their travels. Stan said he would continue to drive, offering McGucket his own bed. The grunkle claimed he wasn't really tired and if he drove more with the people of the wheel they could meet up with the others faster to get the two tapestries. Gideon just stayed in the front seat with Stan, a map in hand to help navigate.

Mabel and Dipper then go to their small room. Waddles oinked with greeting as he goes up to Mabel. She gives her dear pet a pat on his head as she goes to the bed to settle. Dipper takes some pain medication that they had taken from the hospital, his shoulder's throbbing.

"You okay, Dipper?" Mabel asks, worried. He nods. "You sure?"

"Shoulders hurt… that's all." Dipper replies as he gets on the other side of the bed the twins shared. He honestly felt like a little kid sleeping in the same bed as his sister. They used to do it all the time when they were very little, both being afraid of thunderstorms at the time.

"Goodnight, bro-bro." Mabel yawns as she closes her eyes, the blanket up to her chin.

"Goodnight, Mabel." Dipper yawns as well. He closes his eyes, but it seemed like he couldn't sleep. All he heard in his head was the cackle of Bill Cipher, images of a town burning flashing in his mind.

Eventually daylight crosses the twins' faces. Both groaned and tried to roll over, but ended up bumping heads. They both sat up and gave a small chuckle as they rubbed their heads. After a few minutes of sitting in the bed, petting Waddles, they get up and leave the room, realizing that the RV had stopped.

"Morning, Grunkle Stan!" both the kids said in their twin unison. Then they did it again to greet McGucket and Gideon.

"Morning, knuckleheads." Stan greets them back, giving them both a quick noogie to their heads. Dipper knew it was coming as he wasn't wearing his hat, afterwards he puts it on. "Those two groups radioed me in the middle of the night saying they would be at our location by noon today, so in just a few hours we get two more of our wheel."

Dipper grins, although it seemed a little fake. In the back of his mind he couldn't thinking about Bill's deadline.

 _Two weeks._

From the boy's math he would think that he had five days left.

 _Is that even enough time to get to the other tapestries?_ Dipper thought to himself anxiously. _We don't even know where Wendy's and Robbie's are…_

Stan had put plates on the table, some thinly sliced meat from a hare to be like bacon on it. There was also eggs of various kinds, when Stan and Dipper hunt they raid whatever bird's nests they could find to get eggs. The makeshift family ate together at the small table, the twins and Gideon on one side while Stan and McGucket were on the other.

There was static from the radio and Stan checks it.

 _"_ _Hello, this is Melody from Group Question Mark."_ A female said.

"Wait… _Melody_!?" Mabel screeches with excitement.

"As in… _Soos' girlfriend_?!" adds Dipper, equally as excited.

 _"_ _Oh, is that Dipper and Mabel? Hello again you two!"_ Melody greets. _"Mr. Pines, we should be at your location in precisely fifteen minutes, we met up with the Llama group so they'll be arriving with us."_

"Excellent!" Stan cheers. "We'll be right here, we got Gideon and Old Man McGucket."

Fifteen minutes pass and everyone was outside the RV. A total of about five cars was in the distance and they pulled up next to the RV. Melody gets out of the passenger side of a car, holding Soos's tapestry, and Manly Dan came out of another with Pacifica's.

"Woah!" Mabel screams in delight, recognizing Manly Dan's red hair, the same hair that Wendy inherited. "They're from Gravity Falls! Those guys made it out!"

Melody and Manly Dan walk up to Stan with grins on their faces. Dipper was already drawing the circle on the ground and doing the little details, getting ready for the tapestries.

"While we were getting these," Melody was saying to Stan when Dipper returned. "The demons were saying how furious Bill was and that he was sending for guards to Greenland and Italy."

"Greenland and Italy…?" Stan questions.

"Greenland is where Wendy is!" Manly Dan bellowed in his usual gruff tone. "She's ice right? Greenland has a lot of snow!"

"Isn't that Iceland…?" asked Stan, scratching his head.

"No… they're switched." Dipper explains.

Stan then grunts, "What? So, when they made the stupid map of the world they got mixed up or something? Like the guy that was mass producing them was all like, 'Oh shit, I messed up… it's too late now! It's got to stay this way for the rest of history!'"?

Dipper then takes Soos' tapestry and puts it in the middle of the circle. "We are going to do one at a time," he explained. "That way we will have an extra hand for the next one." The group then joins hands and forms their partial wheel. Dipper then quickly informs Gideon on the incantation.

The group says their incantation as the circle and tapestry glows a brilliant light. After a few short minutes the tapestry was formed into a large man wearing a green cap on his head, his shirt bearing a large question mark on the front.

"Hey, what's up dudes?" Soos then screams loudly as he saw his three favorite Pines. He goes up and hugs both Dipper and Mabel close to him. "Man, I'm glad to see you two dudes! Woah, Dipper, you're actually taller than Mabel now! No more being one millimeter shorter!"

Dipper laughs and Mabel joins in. "We missed you too, Soos!" they both cried joyfully.

Stan gives a smile, seeing the kids and Soos be happy. He remembered when Soos was a little kid, about 8 or 9 years old coming to the Shack. Stan "hired" the kid on the spot to be the handyman, knowing that the kid was living with Abuelita alone. He had even made sure that if anything happened to Abuelita he would take care of Soos, knowing that the kid had an absent father.

"Mr. Pines!" Soos then cries out, giving his employer and father figure, an enormous hug. Stan groans painfully from it, but he still smiled and laughed nonetheless. "Oh man, I missed you!"

"I missed ya too, Soos." Stan honestly said.

"Now we just need Pacifica!" Mabel cheerfully says as she gets the tapestry from Manly Dan. "Dipper, tell Soos the spell!" she places the tapestry in the circle.

"Incantation." Dipper corrects.

"Same thing!" his sister retorts.

Once again they gathered hand in hand with their makeshift wheel. Saying the incantation once again, the circle and tapestry glowed a brilliant white. The time was even shorter than the last time, their circle becoming stronger with each growing person. In the center had a young teenaged girl at about the same height as Mabel. She had long blonde hair and piercing green eyes, her wearing a tan colored sweater with a llama on it.

"Wait… what?" Pacifica gasped. She looked all around, seeing how people were changed. "What in the world just happened…?"

"We saved you, duh." Dipper replied bluntly.

Pacifica barely recognized him as he was actually taller than his twin sister. If it weren't for the blue and white pine tree hat and his slightly pink nose she wouldn't have even known it was him.

"Yay!" Mabel cheers, her running up to Pacifica and giving her a hug. "We got another girl! As much as I love you two-" Mabel gestures to her brother and grunkle. "-it really sucks living with boys all the time!"

Dipper and Stan give a laugh, agreeing with her. "Yeah, we're terrible to live with!" Stan joked.

They now have Soos and Pacifica for their group. They only need three people now: Wendy, Robbie, and Ford.

 _But can we make it in time…?_ Dipper thinks to himself as he looks around their group, worry in his eyes.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Hello everyone! Thank you for reading again, it's amazing seeing how many people actually like this!

So, we are getting to the point where the story is going to take a drastic turn, so I hope you guys are ready!

Also, if you guys have questions for me about the plot or theories, please let me know on my tumblr, jlandersen01 !

And, if anyone is good at drawing, can someone help me making art for this? Please and thank you!

And really, thanks again for reading!

~Skye Hendersen~


	13. Chapter 13: The Pine Tree and the Llama

**Chapter 13: The Pine Tree and the Llama**

There was now a plan to try to get to a port city somewhere near the border of the country, they needed a boat to get to Europe.

The main adults of the group –Stan, Melody, and Manly Dan- were trying to decide the best city to go to. Now that the group Bud was leading had finally caught up there were small children again, so they had to be smart because of demon activity. That's when Stan had an idea.

"Well, now that we got Gideon, Soos, and Pacifica we can train them to use a weapon too." Stan pointed out. "We have more than enough weapons and ammunition, so if we have more people with the ability to use them we can get through those shithead monster easier."

"That sounds like an idea…" Melody agreed. "But… we have to discuss plans and supplies, who is going to teach them?"

"Mabel and Dipper." Stan stated. He then gestured to the twins, who were explaining to Soos and Pacifica what had happened in the past year and a half.

Manly Dan then looked uneasy, a look he rarely if ever makes. "Are you sure, Stan?" he asks, a bit cautious sounding.

Stan waves a hand and scoffs. He goes to case of imported beer that Manly Dan had brought along from his trip to South America and pops one open. He takes a large swig of it before he says, "Look, I can see why you're worried about them two, but I trained them myself on how to shoot." He takes another swig, smaller this time. "Mabel is an expert marksmen when it comes to a pistol, but if you want something far away dead then Dipper is your man. The kid actually killed his first deer in just a few shots." He finishes the beer and throws the can a distance away.

"They're really that good…?" Melody asks. She puts a hand to her chin, thinking. "I guess, if they're as good as you say they are. It could be useful to have more people…"

"They're better." Stan insists. "Dipper is the main hunter, he can bag a lot of small game."

Manly Dan gives an impressed grunt. "That kid's gone a long way since the last time I saw him. I thought he was just a nerd."

Stan laughs. "Oh, trust me, he's still a nerd." He gives a glance over again to the kids. "And I wouldn't have it any other way, he reminds me of my brother when he was younger…"

"Alright then, it's settled. Those two kids can train the others of the wheel." Melody agrees. "I'll gather up the supplies."

Stan then calls out to the twins to come over. After a minute of explanation both the twins' eyes lit up.

"I get to teach people to use a gun!?" Mabel squeals in excitement.

"And I get to teach people to use the hunting rifle!?" Dipper was just as easily excited, his voice actually cracking from his still ongoing puberty. He notices the voice cracks and coughs casually, trying to hide it.

Grunkle Stan nods his head. "Yep, and you're gonna start today." He told them as Melody returns from gathering the supplies. She had a pistol and hunting rifle for everyone, and she brought plenty of ammunition. She even brought a few targets. "So, you to get ready, I'll the group know."

"Okay, Grunkle Stan!" both the twins cheered in unison. They both ran into the RV, going to get ready for their training session as the teachers. The twins thought that they should look the part.

Dipper puts on his hunting gear, right down to camouflage pine tree hat, except since it was warm outside because they were in Texas he wore a green t-shirt with black vest and not his hunters coat. He slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder and held the hunting rifle. He was then gathering a few of his journals that he wrote, his own tips and strategies on hunting.

Mabel decided to wear a sweater that has a picture of a book and a red apple on it. She called it her teacher sweater. The young teenaged girl then puts a headband in her hair, a pink camouflage. She made her pistol was ready, she was pretty eager.

"Ready to teach people how to use a gun?" Dipper asks his twin.

"Oh, I've been ready!" Mabel replies, her hands in fists held up high above her head.

The twins leave the RV, some people from Bud's old group saying that the others were in the woods. When they got there it seemed like the group that represented the wheel was surprised that they were the ones to teach them. All of them were really surprised when it was _Dipper_ to be the one to teach about hunting and the long distance shots.

"Wait, whoa," Soos exclaims, putting his hands up in a stop motion. "You two are the ones gonna teach us?"

"Grunkle Stan didn't tell you?" Mabel asked him.

"Nope." Gideon answered for him. "All he said was that two of the best shots were going to teach us." He looked as equally as surprised as the handyman.

"Who knew it would be you two." Pacifica then says, her snotty rich-girl attitude starting to show through again. "I mean, I can see Mabel with a gun because she's… well, Mabel. Dipper, I can't imagine you with a gun."

Dipper furrows his eyebrows angrily. "Wait, seriously?" Dipper sighs, clearly irritated and even a little disappointed. "No one expected this out of me?"

"Bro-bro, _I_ barely expected you to be good with a gun." Mabel interjects.

"Look, I'm a great hunter!" Dipper insists. "I and Grunkle Stan are the reason we have a stockpile of game to eat." He then sets his sniper rifle down and gets his hunting rifle off his shoulder. "First lesson: Dipper is a Great Shot." He makes sure the gun is loaded and cocks it. He goes a little deeper in the woods, the others watching curiously.

Dipper goes downwind, so the animals wouldn't smell him as easily, and hid by a bush. He raises his rifle, waiting. Soon a flash of brown hopped from a bush a good distance away. Without hesitation Dipper made his move and estimated where the animal was going and pulled the trigger. A brown squirrel jumped right in the path of the bullet and fell with a limp _thump!_

The young teenaged boy stands up and looks at his peers. He noticed both Gideon and Pacifica's eyes were wide, not believing he actually did that. Soos' eyes beamed, like he was proud. Soos clapped as he was mumbling to Gideon and Pacifica how that was impressive.

"Any more doubt in my ability?" Dipper casually asks. Shaking of heads. "Good! Mabel, you teach them the basics of the handguns, I'm gonna go bag that! That can make some good jerky."

"Ew, squirrel jerky?" Pacifica comments in disgust. "That sounds gross."

"You won't be thinking that when you're starving…" Dipper grumbles, mainly to himself as he runs to where the squirrel laid dead. He had thought that he and Pacifica were more on civil terms, especially since the ghost at her house he helped with. He shrugs mentally, him no longer thinking about it.

Mabel then goes and talks about how to shoot the gun. She showed them how to hold it and aim. Soos was getting it easily and so was Gideon, after a few tries Pacifica got it. Mabel then even showed them her "tricks", like running with the gun and shooting accurately, using her grappling hook at the same time. In a way she was just trying to show off.

Dipper then finally came back, the dead squirrel in a bag. It was his turn to teach. He starts to show the others the rifle and how it works, how to properly hold it, aim, and even explained how the recoil is completely different than a handgun. When it was time for the others to try themselves it seemed they were having trouble with it. So, one at a time Dipper had to go to each person and fix their posture and stance so they could get it right. He had to help Pacifica at least three different times.

 _There is no way she is_ that _dumb with this…_ Dipper thought bitterly as he Pacifica called him over for the fourth time.

"Am I doing it right now?" She asks as she sloppily gets into position. It seems like she was doing on purpose.

"Are you trying to piss me off or something?" he snapped at her. "Because if you are, it's working…" He then steps behind her and moves her arms into the correct position and used his leg to bump hers into a proper stance. "There. Now stay and actually shoot."

Pacifica gives him a glare and stayed in the position she was put in. She then aims at the tree in front of her and pulls the trigger. She hits the tree dead center of the trunk. The blonde then gives Dipper a smirk as she moves out of the position.

"There." Pacifica says. "Can I go back to the RV now?"

"No." Dipper tells her. "Now get into position without me helping you and do it again." He ordered as he got out his pistol to check if it was fully loaded.

At this point the others had finished their training session. Gideon was decent with a hunting rifle as was Soos. Both the guys were pretty well at the handgun, although Gideon could use some more practice. Even though Pacifica was good at the handgun, she was having issues with the rifle. Mabel had taken them back to the RV to show them how to prepare the meals, Dipper giving his twin the bag with the squirrel.

Pacifica gives Dipper an irritated look and gets into a sloppy version of the position he had shown her. She shoots but it misses the tree. The blonde girl sighs with irritation.

"Think of it like mini golf," Dipper suggested, remembering the time Mabel and Pacifica challenged each other to a mini golf game to see who was more superior at it. "It's practically the same thing with concentration."

"Wow… you're dense." Pacifica grumbles. "And I thought you were the _smart_ twin."

Dipper gives a confused look. "Wait… what?" he sputters.

Pacifica then gets into the correct position and shoots the tree multiple times in the same spot. It was a perfect shot, leaving a hole in the tree. "I may be blonde, but I'm not an idiot, Dipper." She tells him. Her face was slightly red.

The girl then remembers from back in Gravity Falls. She hated Mabel at first, but after the mini golf game she started being friendlier towards her since Mabel was so nice. Dipper had shoved it in her face on Pioneer Day that Nathaniel Northwest wasn't the true founder of Gravity Falls and told her to deal with it, all because she made fun of his sister. Then when her family had a level ten ghost at their mansion she was told to hire Dipper to take care of it.

That was when she first started to have a crush on him. He had always looked nerdy with his pine tree hat, his red-orange shirt and navy blue vest, him always carrying that one book around reading it and always talking about the creatures that were in it. Some of the things he had always said made no sense for at the time twelve year old to know. But he was also very sweet and innocent like his sister, and Pacifica always saw him using his knowledge to help people, especially his family.

So when Dipper had come to Northwest Manor to help her family she got to his sweet side that was actually toward her. She had to give him a suit and make him do his hair because her father wanted him to look presentable while in their home, and she will admit to herself that he actually had looked good in the suit and his hair done. Using his intelligence he actually caught the ghost and she was disappointed when he said he wasn't staying for the party. When Dipper found out that her family new about the curse of the ghost and made her hire him to get rid of the ghost before the curse could happen Dipper had been furious at her, and she had actually felt guilty about it.

After Dipper came back to try to get the ghost after it has escaped he had found Pacifica in the secret room that they had encountered earlier. She had told him that he was right about her being as bad as her parents since she had lied to him about the ghost, but when Dipper apologized to her and told her she didn't have to be like her parents she actually warmed up to him. Even after the whole ghost thing was done and over with, the two enjoyed each other's company when stepping on her parents' favorite carpet with muddy shoes.

Now she sees him slightly different. He was still that nerdy boy, as she saw him by the RV with thick books about quantum physics and strong theory. But he was still sweet and fun as he messes with his sister and helps the others explain what happened in recent time. She actually thought he was better looking now that he was a little bit older. Seeing him smile when he proved that he was a good shot was like seeing a little boy on Christmas getting something they really wanted.

"Oh, so I was right, you were doing this to piss me off." Dipper complains as he takes of his hat to run a hand through his brown hair. Some of the hair moved off his forehead, revealing the Big Dipper shaped birthmark on his forehead that gave him his nickname. He puts it back on as he states, "Well, if you're actually all set then you can head back to the RV, I'm just gonna hunt for a bit."

Pacifica was angry he was brushing her off. "I was doing it on purpose to actually be by you for a bit." She shouts at him. "For someone who is so smart you're so stupid when he comes to girls. Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Dipper's face turns red. "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute… back up here…" Dipper stammered as he uses his hands to make the reverse hand motion. "You're trying to tell me that you actually _like_ me?" his face was even redder. "Um… why? I honestly thought you couldn't stand me because I am 'lame' and 'nerdy'." He uses his fingers to put quotes around "lame" and "nerdy" for emphasis.

"Well…" now Pacifica's face was very red.

There was a sudden crack of a twig. Dipper automatically gets his handgun out and points to the direction of the noise. Shakily, Pacifica follows suit with the handgun she had been given at the beginning of the lesson. Slowly, Dipper moves forward, finger on the trigger.

 _"_ _Pine… tree… hat…"_ a low growl comes from a patch of thick trees ahead of them. A flash of silver erupts from the trees, causing Dipper to yelp in surprise as he jumps back. However, he was then pinned by a large wolf-like creature at his arms and legs. Its pelt was a brilliant shiny silver and its eyes were scarlet red. When it bared its teeth they were pure black and tinged red from a recent feeding. It roars in Dipper's face, causing the boy to close his eyes and to flinch his face away.

 _Bang!_

A bullet hits the monster in the face, loosening its grip on Dipper. Dipper then gets up and runs toward where Pacifica was, her hand still up from firing her gun. Her green eyes were wide with horror, but Dipper couldn't tell if it was from the monster or the thought she actually used a gun.

"We need to run!" Dipper tells her as he grabs her wrist and starts running through the woods.

"Isn't camp the other way!?" she yells at him, realizing they were going an opposite direction.

Dipper huffs, "Well, we can't lead that thing toward the others. There is little kids, I don't want them to get hurt." He leads her into the thick woods, the sky getting dark and the air becoming a muggy heat. A sheen of sweat on his brow as he stops behind a very large tree, his hand still gripped tightly around Pacifica's wrist.

Both stood there, trying to catch their breath as quietly as they could. They could hear the howling of the monster in the distance followed by many more. It was in a pack and they were on the hunt for the Pine Tree.

"Why… would that thing… want you?" Pacifica asks between her breaths.

Dipper smirks. "Maybe the same way you do, I'm that charming." He says in a joking manner, finally catching his breath fully.

"I don't think that it's the right time to discuss that!" Pacifica screeches as she yanks her wrist from his grip. She rubs it gently, it having his finger marks that were so tight before.

"Sorry… I panicked…" Dipper apologizes, gesturing to her wrist.

"Its fine…" she insists. "It might just leave a bruise…"

A blood chilling howl that pierces through the air gives the two teenagers' goosebumps. A sudden crack came from the tree they were hiding behind, long knife-like claws slashing through the ancient wood like it was paper.

"MOVE!" Dipper screams as he pulls Pacifica toward him as he dodges the now falling tree. The tree falls with a loud _crash!_ The wood splintered and cracked all around the trunk. The wolf monster climbed on it, hunched over with bared teeth. A few more followed suit, all of them growling.

 _"_ _Pine… tree… hat…"_ one of them growled, another echoes. Soon all of them were growling that phrase, using their muzzles to gesture toward his cap.

"Stupid damn hat…" Dipper mutters. "It's not even the right one…"

Pacifica grips his hand and whispers in his ear, "What are we going to do?"

"I'm thinking of a plan…" he insists, looking around. If they ran the pack would be at their heels, one was already difficult but a whole pack would practically be impossible. He grips his gun and slowly raises it. "Aim… for the eyes. Once they are distracted we are going to run and keep on running until we find water. With the water we can wash our scent off to dim it so they can't find us as easily… then we'll try to get back to camp and with the others we'll form a barrier and fire when they come after us." He quickly explains, he said it so fast that Pacifica barely understood what he said.

Dipper then goes to shoot but another wolf creature came at his side that had been hiding and slams him down. The brunette screams in agony, his shoulders slamming to the dirt floor. Pacifica gets her gun aimed at the creature but the ones that were in front of them before lunged. She quickly ducks and manages to roll away as one hit the tree she was standing by.

"Dipper!" she calls to him. He laid there in agony, blood seeping through his shirt, his wounds from before reopening. As she tries to get to him the beast that had knocked him down picks him back up and howls to the others. They barked a message to each other and the original three beasts bounded away, howling a victory, but stupidly leaving Pacifica unharmed, not caring for her.

` "Let me go!" Dipper gasps, the back of his shirt being gripped by the creature as it held him. "You son of a-" he tried to raise his arm to aim his handgun, but it dropped as Dipper winced in pain.

"Let him go!" Pacifica screams, her hands shaking as she aimed her gun at the creature. It gave her a warning growl, its red eyes pulsating with the lust for blood. "I… I will…"

"JUST SHOOT, PACIFICA!" Dipper screams at her as he flung his head back to hit the monster in its nose. It screeches in pain as he was being dropped, it going to stand on its hind legs, the blood from its nose was thick and black just like all the other demons.

However, Pacifica didn't time it properly. She just aimed and pulled the trigger, but as Dipper was falling the bullet pierced through his abdomen, causing him to scream in pain, but the monster also screamed as the bullet got it too. While the beast howled in anger and pain Pacifica kept shooting the monster in its chest area and hit an artery in the neck.

Not even caring if the beast was dying, Pacifica runs up to Dipper and gets him on his feet. She throws one of his arms across her back as she drags him away as fast as she could. His bullet wound pulsed out blood, soaking his shirt and was getting on her llama sweater. Dipper's face was glistening with sweat and his skin was pale.

"I'm so sorry!" the blonde kept saying over and over as she made their way through the woods in the general way they had come from. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you!"

"It's fine…" Dipper moaned, his hand was pressed against his wound, blood oozing thickly between his fingers. "I don't think it hit anything important since it went straight through… Mabel can fix me… up."

The sky was a pitch black and the air was so thick and muggy that it felt like Pacifica was breathing through water. She sets Dipper down on the ground after what seemed like forever, panting and sweating. He was heavier than she expected and she needed a moments rest.

"I… wonder where the rest of the pack went…" Dipper though aloud. "It seems odd that they would just leave you and run away." His voice sounded weak and Pacifica had to strain to hear him.

That was when a high pitched, blood curdling scream of pain broke through the forest, causing Dipper to stand straight up, ignoring all pain. His blood ran cold, his brown eyes wide at the full moon above them.

"What… was that…?" Pacifica asks shakily.

Dipper then goes into a full on sprint, ignoring his bleeding abdomen and shoulders, heading right toward where he knew the camp would be as that was where the scream came from. Pacifica follows directly behind, worried about Dipper's condition and whoever screamed.

Dipper panted, his heart racing so hard that it was literally pulsing the blood out of his body. He pushes back the branches that were slashing at his face, ignoring every twist in his ankles as he climbs over gnarled tree roots. He had to get there… he had to get to her…

"MABEL!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hello! So... sorry about the little bit of Dipcifica stuff... I actually ship them and think they are very cute together /

Also, I hope things haven't been too graphic...!

Remember, if you have any questions just PM me on here or ask questions at my tumblr, jlandersen01. I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can!

As always, thanks for reading!

~Skye Hendersen~


	14. Chapter 14: The Cipher's Plan

**Chapter 14: The Cipher's Plan**

The city that surrounded him was set ablaze by the flames of his rage, the power flowing through the veins of his puppet, most likely causing great agony.

Bill Cipher, possessing Ford's body, stood on top of the last building that was standing. He gazed down, watching as his henchmen went through the streets gathering any survivors and ripping their limbs apart. Bill cackles happily he sees a heart being ripped out of a fairly young man.

"Oh, Fordsy, look what your stupid family caused…" Bill says with fake concern. "They made me make you do a very bad thing…" he laughs.

Ford, in his mind, was screaming with despair. He was witnessing these peoples' demise. It felt with each death he was losing more and more of his humanity to Bill. Bill was going to break him, if it wasn't with this torture he was going to use the rest of Pines family to do it.

Bill had his new throne, bloody and screaming, sent to his main pyramid that was in Gravity Falls, Oregon. He couldn't wait to have Pine Tree in his possession and make him enjoy sitting on it…

"Now that my little… tantrum is over…" Bill muses. "I should check on Pine Tree…" he waves Ford's possessed hand in front of him, making a flamed circle appear, showing the image of a group of people. In the image Pine Tree and Shooting Star had big grins on their faces, as if excited about something.

 _"_ _Ready to teach people how to use a gun?"_ The image of Pine Tree asked.

 _"_ _Oh, I've been ready!"_ the image of Shooting Star replies, her hands above her head in excitement.

The two had then walked over to where Gideon, the Llama, and the Question Mark stood. Bill laughs to himself, he thought it was absolutely hilarious that those two were going to teach how to use guns. He was really amused when the others doubt that Pine Tree could even handle a gun.

Somehow Bill had to get Pine Tree to join him… but just like Stanford and even Stanley the kid was stubborn as hell. He knows the kid will reject his offer… unless…

Bill smiles, a mockery of Ford, as he thought of a great plan. He waves the image from in front of him and opens a portal back to his main pyramid. Once there he leaves Ford's body to go back to his stoned form, causing Ford to collapse onto the ground, screaming and gasping to himself.

"Quit your blubbering, Fordsy!" Bill snaps at him, not even going toward his new throne. He was saving his first sit as being Pine Tree. "I'm trying to think of a plan here!"

"You… monster…" Ford managed to gasp, his hands cradled against him. "Those were innocent people… and you slaughtered them like they were nothing…"

Bill rolls his eye. "That's because they _are nothing_!" he screeches. Blue flames begin to surround him, him actually being pretty calm. "Humans are nothing but worthless sacks of flesh and blood… only a handful I can say are useful… you and Pine Tree being an example."

"Humanity is more than your damn toys, Cipher!" Ford bellows, a mixture of grief and anger. "Those people had lives… souls… families… and now they're all gone!"

"If you're trying to convince me that I should care, then wow, maybe Stanley is the smart twin between you two." Bill casually says, waving his hand for his demonic martini to appear in his hand. He puts the glass to his eye, actually drinking with it since he has no mouth. "What would you say that your brother and Pine Tree have in common?" he then asks Ford.

"What?" the old scientist questions. "What kind of question is that?"

Bill retorts, "The kind that need to be answered."

Ford thought for a moment. "They're both the younger twin… um…" he murmured. He had always compared the boy to himself, he had associated Mabel and Stan to be more alike.

"Use that big brain of yours, Ford!" Bill had appeared next to him and knocked on his head, the metal plate making a metallic clang sound. "Really _think_ … what did your brother do for thirty years? He threw his life away, basically killed himself off, so he could focus on getting you back. And… who else has that kind of trait…?"

Ford's eyes widened. He remembers when he asked for Dipper to be his apprentice that the boy's first concern was about his twin. Everything that Mabel asked for her brother to do with him, he complied, even though he wasn't too happy to do so. Dipper threw everything down that he did to make his sister happy.

"Oh no… you wouldn't… you can't!" Ford cries out, his old brown eyes filling with tears. Because of him those two kids were going through Hell.

"Oh... you and I both know that I can and I _will_!" the demon sinisterly cackles. Bill claps his hands together and a door opens, revealing a pack of silver wolf-monsters. "I'm just gonna send some friends to play with Shooting Star and mess with Pine Tree a bit…"

"NO!" Ford scream pierces through the air. But it was too late, Bill had snapped his fingers and the pack disappeared. Ford crumbles within himself, his heart feeling cold and heavy, like a block of ice. His whole body shook, his niece and nephew were in danger because of him.

Bill cackles as he floats over to his puppet. He snaps his fingers and the collar and chain appears on Ford, chaining him to where he was collapses. Bill then makes his portal to watch his amusement once again.

"How about we watch until we are needed, Ford?" Bill offers with a sharp emphasis of insanity in his tone.

And Ford had no choice but to watch as hell unfolds in front of his eyes.


	15. Chapter 15: The Deal

**Chapter 15: The Deal**

"MABEL!"

Dipper was screaming with all his voice could manage. He was starting to drag in speed, but he kept going, he had to get to his sister. More screams were echoing around the forest, but Dipper ignored them as they were not Mabel's, whenever he heard her he would push himself to go faster.

Pacifica was keeping a good pace with him, prepared if he collapsed. She was terrified, wondering what was happening. Was Mabel hurt? Was she being attacked? The blonde keeps her eyes on Dipper, who was screaming his sister's name with despair, trying to get to her. She had to make sure Mabel was okay as well, she couldn't bare if the first person that was ever truly kind to her got hurt.

After what seemed like an eternity the two managed to get to the edge of the forest, seeing Stan with his gun shooting at the wolf creature attacking him. A limp body was by his feet, and he was desperately trying to protect it.

"MABEL!" Dipper screams again, his hand barely lifting up to aim his gun toward the creature attacking his family. The gun was nothing but weight to his arm and his hand shook violently.

As the creature turns its head toward Dipper an opportunity presented itself in front of Stan. He takes his handgun and jumps onto the monster, putting the gun to its skull. He pulled the trigger multiple times until there was nothing but clicks, the gun empty of bullets.

The monster that Stan killed was the last one that was at camp, a few others of the pack dead in other sections, one by Manly Dan who had a bloody axe in hand, one by a smaller groups of young adults with shot guns, and the last one was under a tire of a truck as it was ran over to death. Dipper had managed to get to Mabel without any help as he finally just collapses next to his sister, dropping his gun, tears stinging his eyes as they threaten to spill over.

Mabel's neck was sliced open, both hands to it trying to keep her life's blood from pouring out. With every breath she took there as gurgling, and she would cough, causing a wave of blood to flow between her hands. Her brown eyes were wide with pain and fear, but they seemed so glad to see her brother.

"Oh my God, Mabel!" the cry was weak coming out of Dipper's mouth, his own blood pouring from his wounds. "No, no, no! I can help… I need medical supplies… Mabel, just stay with me, okay?" tears spilled from his eyes, dripping onto Mabel's paling face, her skin almost looking waxy and lifeless. She tried to do a nod but gurgled in pain.

Stan was next Dipper, his sweater bundled in his hand. He puts the sweater over Mabel's wound, trying to stop the bleeding, with as much pressure as he could do without crushing her neck. His heart dropped, thinking of how it is not going to work. Now his great niece was dying in front of him, and he felt like he could've prevented it.

"How did this happen?!" Dipper demanded. He felt so helpless, his twin was dying. They were together for their entire lives and now she was being ripped from him. He hits himself in his own wounds multiple times, trying to wake up from this horrible nightmare.

 _Maybe it's just another nightmare! Please, God, please let it be the case! I'll wake up and Mabel will be next to me cuddling Waddles…!_ Dipper thought frantically over and over until Stan grabs his hand to make the boy stop hurting himself.

"Those monsters came out of the woods…" Stan whispered hoarsely, his voice thick with emotion. "They… went after Mabel specifically… I tried to defend her, and she fought back… but one got her from the side… I couldn't protect her…" tears fell down the old man's face, his body wracking with sobs.

Gasps were then being made all around, causing both the male Pines to glance up. Bill Cipher was there… Ford being dragged by a chain, the man looking broke and defeated. The cackle that came from the demon was nothing but insane.

"Oh, lookie here!" his shrill voice pierces through the bloody night. "Little Shooting Star is dying! I can save her you know… how about we open back up that deal, Pine Tree?"

Dipper slowly stands up, his hands covered in his and his sister's blood. "You… bastard…" he groans as he takes a shaky step forward. "You had something to do with this… didn't you…?" His brown eyes were hard with anger, despite them drooping from him about to pass out. "I'll kill you… you son of a bitch…" each word was sounding weaker and weaker.

Bill feigns innocence. "Me, Pine Tree?" he blinks his eyes multiple times, to pretend to be bashful. "That's rude to accuse you know!" He then gives the boy a look over. "And wow… you're not looking so well yourself, Pine Tree… were you trying to kill yourself or something before our little deadline?" If the triangular demon could smile, he would've.

The boy had his bloodied hands into fists. Each second that passes Mabel is closer to death. He _had_ to take the deal, he had no choice. And that was the way Bill Cipher had planned. Dipper was a puppet the whole time without actually _being_ his puppet.

"Fine, Bill…" Dipper quietly says, glancing down at his dying twin, the look of determination on his face mixed with sadness. "Let's…" he takes a deep breath. "Let's make a deal…" He had no choice, he had absolutely no choice.

Ford looks up from his broken form, him actually crying. He wanted to shake his head, to tell Dipper not to do it, but if it was a way to save Mabel… Ford would sacrifice himself all day to make sure his family is safe, so would Stanley. But seeing a fourteen year old boy doing it made his heart break. He glances at his niece, seeing her struggle to keep her life, his soul shattering. It was all his fault… since day one it was his fault.

Bill cheers and claps. "That's what I like to hear, Pine Tree!" his shrill voice was happy sounding. He appears in front of Dipper in less than a second, readying his hand.

"My condition, Bill…" Dipper begins. "Is that absolute no harm or death goes towards my family and friends. You can't hurt them, you can't send anyone to hurt them, you don't possess myself or someone else to hurt them… and Mabel is to be healed fully…"

Bill's hand was then outstretched, it enclosed with a blue flame. "You got yourself a deal, Pine Tree." As Dipper goes and grasps his hand Mabel was looking at the two, tears glistening in her eyes. Once the deal was struck the demon snaps his fingers and Mabel was healed, her gasping for fresh air.

Dipper's eyes lit up with happiness and he goes to run to his sister, but he was stopped by Bill. "Nuh-uh, Pine Tree. You're my puppet now, can't have you interacting with the meat bags." He was told.

"No!" Mabel cries, an arm outstretched to reach for her twin. "Let my brother go! He doesn't deserve this…" she was trying to sit up but as wobbly.

"Sorry, Shooting Star, but a deal is a deal." Bill informs, voice thick with mockery. He then snaps his fingers again and Ford was then put next to Stan, him back to wearing his one red sweater and long tan trench coat, no longer wearing his puppet look.

"Dipper…" Ford then finally says, his voice sore sounding, it kept cracking. "You don't deserve this… we will save you, do you hear me? You saved your sister… you did what any sibling would…" he glances at Stan.

"Oh, I'd like to see you try, meat bags!" Bill cackles. "You think I'm going to let you take Ice and Stitched Heart so easily? No… cross the ocean and you'll be dead, and it's not me sending monsters after you, the ocean is a natural mote practically, and I can't control thousands to millions of those creatures. Or I can just _burn_ them… but seeing you guys suffering would be more entertaining to me." Bill then snaps his fingers once again and Dipper falls to the ground, passed out with his wounds healed. "Now, if you all excuse me and my new puppet! Buy gold, BYE!" and within a second the two disappeared.

The entire crowd was nothing but silent. Some people didn't dare to even breathe. The being that took over the world was just in their presence. They all couldn't decide whether or not be happy or scared that they were spared. But now one of them was gone, someone that was important to the cause to defeat the demon.

After a minute of silence Stan turns to his twin… and punches him square in the face, causing Ford to stumble back. Stan's brow was furrowed furiously, just like when Ford had come out of the portal after thirty years.

"Okay… I deserve that…" Ford admits, rubbing his face, wiping the small bit of blood that came from his mouth. Then his twin went and gave him a hug, his head down, actually sobbing. "Wait… I don't deserve this…" a confused Ford states, him looking uncomfortable.

"You're an idiot… I don't care… at least my brother is back…" Stan sobs as Ford hugs him back, tears in his own eyes.

Mabel was on her knees, her pink sweater that had blue polka dots on them soaked with blood, her hands drying a rusty brown color. Just a few hours ago she was laughing with her brother, messing with him about his books like she always did, him giving his smirk when he was right about something… now he was gone.

 _He gave up his freedom for me…_ Mabel thought. Her brown eyes were wet with tears, and as they fell they mixed with the drying blood that was on her cheeks. _Dipper…_

She then stands up shakily, losing her balance. Soos had to help her and Pacifica was at her side to continue the support. Slowly she made it to her grunkles, who parted their hug. She then gives Ford a hug, sobbing into him, it was so long since she seen him.

 _But Dipper is gone…_

"What… did Bill mean about opening back the deal and a deadline, Grunkle Ford…?" Mabel asks with a choked sob. She looks up at him with such sad eyes that Ford's chest clenched.

"When… I was a puppet… Bill kept an eye on Dipper…" Ford slowly said. "He wanted someone younger for when he took his power across the universe… so naturally he tuned to Dipper since he is quite similar to me…

"When Dipper was hunting, that day you couldn't find him for a bit, Bill used me to interact with him, offering the deal. Dipper, and I'm proud of the boy for doing what he did, shot me multiple times… he said that I probably would rather be dead then be controlled, and he was right… It hurt like a bitch though…

"The deadline was two weeks… and Bill sent whatever he could to try to convince Dipper to join him. He sent the monsters… watched it all unfold. Then he realized that the only way that he would join is if… if you were harmed or dying, Mabel…" Ford stops, his body shaking. With a shaky breath he adds, "It's all my fault… since day one when I made the deal with Bill when I was studying in Gravity Falls…"

Mabel stood there, processing the information. No wonder why Dipper panicked about a week going by that he was unconscious, or how he had way more nightmares than usual. He was acting crabby and when Grunkle Stan would ask him about the forest he would snap at him.

"We will get him back…" Mabel insists. "We just need to get Robbie and Wendy…"

Ford does a firm nod, Stan's hand on his shoulder. "We _will_ get Dipper back and defeat Bill, Mabel." He tells her, his voice now slowly getting stronger. "I swear it we will."

Mabel nods, a determined look in her eyes, the tears already starting to dry.

"I will save my brother…!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hello everyone! As always thanks for reading! I'm just adding this note here because there might be a two to three day hiatus on this due to myself working more this weekend. I will try to upload as soon as I can, but by Monday 4-25-16 the daily updates will continue!

~Skye Hendersen~


	16. Chapter 16: Pine Tree is a Puppet

**Chapter 16: Pine Tree is a Puppet**

Dipper opens his eyes, hearing nothing but screams of pain and agony.

His heart clenches and he sits up, his head spinning and aching. When his the room stopped spinning he saw that he was in a throne room. This throne room was much more extravagant than the pyramids he was at to get the tapestries.

The floor was made of golden marble, a thick red carpet leading from the throne to the exit. The ceiling was high, seemingly endless, with red fabrics accenting the walls at it climbs. Some scorch marks were stained on the walls, no doubt from Bill's fire and anger.

However, the throne in front of him is what made the teenager gasp in horror. The throne was made of humans, all formed together, their skin black as charcoal, blood and a yellow substance slowly oozing from the cracked skin. They all screamed and moan in pain, begging to be put out of their eternal pain and misery, some were able to move their arms and they outstretched, trying to reach for help.

"Oh, Pine Tree, isn't my new throne lovely?" Bill Cipher's shrill voice shouts in his ear. Dipper jumps back, his brown eyes wide, and a hand to his chest. "Oh, you jump like a scared kitten!" Bill laughs.

"What did you do to these people, Bill!?" Dipper demands, his voice cracking, his hands in his hair where no longer his hat was. His eyes dart around and he finds his camouflage hat and quickly puts it on, the sort of security blanket he has adapted since he was very young to wear a hat.

"Oh my usual," the demon responds casually, not particularly caring about the question. He then snaps his fingers and a pile of solid black clothes appears in front of the frightened teenager. "Now, since you are my puppet now, you got to look the part."

Dipper looks at it, his brows furrowed curiously. It was all black clothing, with only some accents of yellow-gold. More or less it seemed like Dipper was going to attend a funeral.

 _Funeral for my freedom being stripped away._ Dipper thought bitterly. _How fitting._

"Now, hop to it! We have a busy schedule today, Pine Tree!" Bill shrills as he makes a blue flamed portal and goes through it, monsters on the other side, leaving Dipper in the throne room filled with screams.

Uncomfortable at the situation the boy goes and finds a pillar he can hide behind to change. As his original articles of clothing fell to the floor they were engulfed with blue flames and disappeared, including his hat which he was glad it was not his blue and white pine tree hat. He puts on a pair of black dress pants, puts on black socks and shoes, and puts on a white long sleeved shirt with golden cufflinks. The dress coat he put on was a solid black, almost resembling a shadow, the buttons golden, and it was long with tails at the end. All was left was a piece of golden fabric that was supposed to be tied in a bow tie, so he puts it on with a dreaded sigh. He looks around for any sort of hat, like what Ford had worn, but there wasn't one.

Dipper steps out from behind the pillar, adjusting the bow tie to not strangle his neck as much. His shoes as he walked made clicking sounds as they made contact with the marble, echoing along with the screams from the throne. For a minute he stands there looking at the throne, how he knows that Bill is going to make him sit on it, with blood roaring in his ears in anxiety.

"Well, well, well, Pine Tree!" Bill's voice returned, and once again right next to Dipper's ear. "I figured I would need a change in color scheme now that Ford isn't my puppet anymore, I figured you with black would be fine."

Dipper once again had jumped from Bill's sudden appearance, stifling a gasp. He quickly composes himself, not wanting the demon to belittle him again. He straightens his coat, making sure it was smooth. In a way this outfit reminded him of when Mabel had her puppet show back in Gravity Falls…

The thought of his sister makes his chest tighten. Was she in any danger since he left? He knows she would be deeply upset that he was gone. What was he going to now that he doesn't get to see her smile every day while she was knitting sweaters?

 _But she is safe… and that's all that matters._

The demon then hold out his hand, engulfed in a small blue flame, welcoming. Dipper knew what was going to happen, he had been possessed by Bill before. The teenager then takes the hand, prepared for his spirit to leave his body.

But it didn't.

It was like fighting over control, Dipper's brain feeling scrambled and it was throbbing. Dipper screams in pain, this was nothing like before, the very fiber of his being felt as if though being ripped apart. His hands were burning intensely, and when he glances down he sees that their engulfed with blue flames, he bites back a strangled scream. He blinks his eyes multiple times, feeling like they were expanding full of pressure and were burning. Dipper at this point collapses to his knees, hunched over, his body feeling like it was convulsing under himself. He would scream through clenched teeth, his jaw feeling like it was splintering. The pain was almost unbearable…

A maniacal and hysterical laugh escapes his mouth, except it wasn't his. Without his own will, his body stands up and looks down at his hands, the flames licking across his skin in a brilliant blue. Slowly his body turns and walks up to the throne, another laugh escaping, seemingly more mad and insane.

 _No… no… I'm not sitting on that…!_ Dipper thinks frantically, the sounds of screaming in misery increasing in volume as his body got closer, and closer, _and closer…_

Soon his body was sitting on the throne, the sounds of bones crushing beneath him and burnt skin cracking open. His right elbow was place on the arm, his face resting on the enclosed fist of his hand, and his right leg crossed over his left. Dipper felt his mouth being formed in a devious smile, something he would never do himself.

"Well, Pine Tree," Bill's voice came from Dipper's mouth. "I do have to say, I actually kind of missed your body..." a cackle erupts from him as he snaps the boy's left fingers. A mirror was formed in front of him, and within his mind Dipper gasped in horror.

Dipper's eyes were no longer their brown, but black snake-like slits. The sclera of his eyes a dim yellow. His mouth was twisted in the maniacal smile, his brown hair now tussled is a much more messy way, revealing the Big Dipper birthmark on his forehead more.

"I'm going to have _a lot of fun…_ " a sadistic laugh erupts from him as his eyes seem to glow, his cackle of laughter echoing in the room over the screams of the throne.

Bipper had returned.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Bipper has finally come in the story! Yay! Also, I am sorry about the few day hiatus, and should not happen again for the rest of the story.

Thank you guys for all of the support! It really means a lot!

~Skye Hendersen~


	17. Chapter 17: The Pines-O-War

**Chapter 17: The Pines-O-War**

Mabel barely slept that night, her in the bed she and Dipper had been sharing alone.

She kept looking at the empty spot that he would sleep on, he always waited for her to go to sleep first and he would be reading something or chewing a pen, thinking. All that was in his spot was his white and blue pine tree hat he had always wore, not even Waddles would go over to the spot to sleep.

She sits up, rubbing her eyes, and she takes his hat and puts it on her head. It felt odd wearing it, as she never really wore a hat. However, when she wore the hat it felt like she was still connected to her brother. She was going to wear it until she sees him again to give it back to him, which was a promise she silently made to herself as she gets up from the bed.

Mabel opens the door slightly, seeing the light to the kitchen part of the RV was on. At the small table was Stan and Ford, both looking very grim. Stan was of course wearing a sweater that Mabel had made for him, it was a deep maroon but it didn't have a design on it. Ford was wearing his tan trench coat, his red sweater looking dirty.

"Mabel…?" Ford questions, looking up from his seat. "What are you doing up?"

"You should be sleeping, sweetie." Stan adds, concern in his voice.

"I can't sleep…" the girl admits, fixing the hat on her head. The two older twins noticed she was wearing Dipper's hat, but they didn't mention anything about it. "Can I stay out here with you guys?" her eyes were pleading.

"Uh…" Ford mumbled, unsure.

"Of course you can," Stan smiles gently at her, moving himself closer to the window so she can sit next to him. "Come pop a squat next to your Grunkle Stan." She does so and he puts an arm around her to comfort her as she sniffled lightly.

Ford was uncomfortable. He wasn't used to being around Mabel, or anyone else for that matter, but he felt more connected with Dipper than with her. Ford does a mental sigh.

 _And that's my fault…_

He figured Mabel was more like Stanley than himself, but with what Bill pointed out to him that there were similarities between Stan and Dipper, there had to be similarities between himself and Mabel. Despite the situation at hand, he felt that he should comfort her too.

"Mabel, we will get Dipper back…" Ford started. "He's a brave kid, I'll give him that… and he's also very intelligent for his age. If anything we only have a couple of weeks before Bill decides to get going across the universe, so we need to form a plan by then."

Stan scoffs, "What are we gonna do? We don't have access to Europe… if what that flying tortilla chip says is true and we get in the water, we'll be killed by the monsters."

Ford gives a smile. "We _do_ have access to Europe though… we are in Texas, home of one of the largest ports in the United States, Port Houston. The monsters we can handle." He pulls out his interdimensional gun that he got from his time beyond the portal out of an inside pocket. "Trust me, I am familiar with the monsters from Bill's dimension… I've dealt with them for thirty years."

Stan gives his brother a sad glance. He still felt guilty after all these years. If he wasn't so stubborn he could've handled the situation back in 1982 properly. Or maybe if he hadn't been afraid of a future without Ford, then maybe Stan wouldn't have accidentally ruined his science project.

Sensing Stan's change in mood, Ford continues the conversation on a different path. "I say we get a large boat, one that can carry a lot of us on it and sail straight for Greenland." He gives his brother a big grin. "We can finally have the Stan-O-War."

"I got a better idea," Stan interjects as he rubs Mabel's shoulder absently, her lookimg up at him with her chocolate brown eyes. Ford gives him a confused look, raising a gray eyebrow. "We can finally have the Pines-O-War, it just isn't us anymore, Stanford."

Ford gives a small smile in response, relieved that his brother didn't turn the idea down of the boat. "The Pines-O-War," he chuckles. "Perfect." He raises his right hand, a ghost of a memory going through his mind, with a slight look of mischief across his features, like a small child. "High six?"

Stan with a smile on his face, one of the most genuine that Mabel has ever seen since recent memory. "High six, Sixer." he agrees as they connected hands with a _clap!_

Eventually while the three were talking of a plan about getting supplies for the boat Mabel had fallen asleep leaning against Grunkle Stan, the pine tree hat going over her eyes. After several hours she opens her eyes and adjusts the hat, seeing Stan next to her with his head back snoring. Ford was still in the seat in front of her, asleep leaning onto his hand with a pen between his fingers, a paper in front of him with bullet points on what they need for the boat; his mouth was partially opened, just like how Dipper would sleep at the table while reading or working on something.

Mabel slowly gets up from her grunkle's protective embrace as she slowly walks back into her and Dipper's room, her heart aching at the absence of her twin. She gets her knitting stuff together and begins knitting a red sweater with the emblem of a golden six fingered hand on the front. She figured that Grunkle Ford needed a new sweater… and it also kept her mind off of things for the hour she was alone.

The night before after cleaning herself up of her and Dipper's blood she had shut herself in the room and knitted, not wanting anyone to bother her. She hadn't knitted this crazily since discovering her parents' death. She had knitted Pacifica a hot pink sweater with a llama on it, she had knitted Soos a dark green sweater with a black question mark weaved in it, and she knitted herself a purple sweater with a blue pine tree on the front with a shooting star behind it; she was currently wearing it.

A light creak sound came from her opening door, her brown eyes shooting up to it. Grunkle Ford had opened it slightly and poked his head through, a steaming cup of coffee in hand. He adjusts his glasses with his free hand and gestures inside, as if asking if he could come in, and Mabel nods.

"Sorry to interrupt, Mabel," Ford says as he sits on the edge of the bed. "I figured I'd check up on you since you weren't at the table when I woke up." He takes a sip of his coffee and he glances at the yarn his great niece had. "What are you knitting?" he asks her, curious. He knew she knitted a lot, mostly sweaters, but he had noticed that she had knitted blankets as well as hats and scarves.

Mabel lifts up a half knitted sweater. "I'm making you a sweater, Grunkle Ford." She says with monotone, her voice having no emotion like she did in the past, clearly upset. "I figured you needed another… yours is pretty dirty…" she continues knitting, no longer looking up, and the hat over her eyes.

"Oh…" Ford's face slightly blushed. No one has ever made him something like that, it was so nice and genuine that it warmed his heart more than his morning coffee. "Why thank you, Mabel, I really love sweaters." He gives a half smile thinking that there was a thing they have in common. "You have a real talent, young lady."

She looks up from underneath the hat. "I'm not talented like Dipper though," she sighs sadly. Her grunkle gives a confused look, wondering why she would say that about herself. "He's always been so much smarter than me… he was actually supposed to skip grades but he declined because of me… he's always been better with his tests and his theories… That's probably why you like Dipper more than me…" she pauses her knitting, looking at the sweater with a blank face.

"Whoa, that's not true." Ford insists, raising his free hand in the universal "stop" sign. "Yes, I do have a lot more in common with Dipper than you cause of our academics… _but,_ you and I actually have quite a bit in common." It was the girl's turn to give a confused look, her looking up with round eyes. "We are the older twin, so we always got to make sure our little brothers are okay. And hey, we both really love sweaters. Also-" he then notices some of her artwork that was scattered around. "-you and I are great artists, with more practice you will surpass myself. You're smart in your own way, Mabel, you don't have to be academically advanced to be considered 'smart', just look at Stanley, he is intelligent in a completely different way than I am. I don't like Dipper more than you, I love you both equally. You're a good person, Mabel, don't let anyone tell you different or try to bring you down."

Mabel gives Ford a tearful smile and goes and hugs him, the half made sweater crumpling between them. He gave a grunt of surprise, not used to someone giving him a hug really, but he gives back the hug full heartedly, carful with his hot coffee mug so none of its contents would spill on the girl.

"You know…" he says slowly. "Every good ship needs an amazing emblem for a flag… wanna help me with a design and we can sew a flag together?" he really felt bad that he ever made Mabel think that he didn't care for her, which wasn't true in the slightest. The moment he met her when he came out of the portal he liked her because she fully accepted polydactyly. It's true that he had more in common with Dipper with their intelligence, and hell they both have some sort of bodily anomaly with Dipper having the birthmark on his forehead that gave him his nickname, but with great thought he had just as much in common with his great niece.

"You really mean that, Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asks, her brown eyes warm looking like chocolate.

"Yeah, I'm sure with our creative minds we can make a great one!" Ford enthuses. "I'll wait until you're done with the sweater though…"

"I can finish on the boat when we set sail." Mabel says as she puts her stuff down, putting it on top of her crafting basket, a soft crumple of paper sounding that she took no notice to. She then grabs her one sketchbooks that she had drew a shooting star on the cover and her colored pencils and markers. For the first time since Dipper's sacrifice she gave a nice smile, and Ford noticed that she no longer had her braces.

The two leave the room and head to the kitchen table, where Stan was still snoring away. Ford and Mabel sat next to each other and once Stan woke up at the sound of their discussion he asked what they were doing. When Mabel explained Stan then asked if there was something he could do for the boat.

Ford hands him a list, the paper he made the notes on earlier. "Here, take a few people with you to Port Houston and secure a boat with these specs on it." Stan looks at the very large list, adjusting his glasses.

"That's… a lot, Stanford." He confesses as he read the last bullet point, a look of doubt going across his old features.

"Stanley, come on, we need all this stuff." Ford insists, crossing his arms. "We need the speed to get to Greenland at a decent pace. If we are going to get the tapestries and save Dipper, we need it."

"Okay, okay, don't get your trench coat in a knot…" sighed Stan as he folds up the list and puts it in his pants pocket. "I'll get Soos and Gideon to come with me, maybe a few people from Bud's group too."

"Sounds like a plan, Stanley." Ford says. He then goes and gets two handheld radios and gives one to his twin. "Let me know when you're all set, or if you are in trouble."

Stan nods, taking the radio. He leaves the RV, already calling for Soos and Gideon to get a car ready. Soon the sound of an engine roars to life and it hums away, going toward Port Houston. Ford had made a map on the back of the paper how to get there, knowing that they would need it.

Mabel had drawn about two full rough drafts of the flag. The first one had the name "Pines-O-War" on it with a house looking thing that resembled the Mystery Shack, but it honestly looked too plain. The second one was the Mystery Shack with all their symbols on it, but drawing the pine tree made her heart ache. A third one she was stuck on a design, not sure what to make, only the outline of the flag was on it.

"If I can make a suggestion, Mabel?" Ford asks, a pencil in hand. The girl nods as he pulls the sketchbook closer to him. He starts drawing the Mystery Shack in a center of a circle, the outside perimeter having all the symbols of Bill's zodiac. Ford kept the symbols in the same spot that he had when he drawn back during Weirdmageddon's beginning. In big, neat letters he writes "Take Back the Falls - Pines-O-War".

"Wow…!" Mabel exclaims. "You _are_ very good at drawing!" Her eyes were wide with surprise and wonder. She knew Stan couldn't draw like this, or even Dipper, both of them had very childlike drawing styles.

"Who do you think drew all the pictures in the journals?" Ford scoffs, a grin on his face as he adjusts his cracked glasses. "Fiddleford?"

The girl giggles as she pulls the sketchbook back to her. She really liked the design and the message. She then draws something on the sides as well, since there was space. What she drew on the left side was a shooting star with the rainbow tail with a pine tree in front, slightly bigger so the top and the bottom stuck out. On the right side was the six fingered hand with the crescent shaped symbol in its center, also slightly bigger to overlap.

"Two sets of Mystery Twins," she proudly states, showing Ford the design.

"That's a good touch, sweetie." The old scientist beamed at her, him really liking the design. He honestly liked how the younger twins were the main shot of Mabel's added design, maybe a message saying how important the younger twin was to the older one. "Now… about fabric-"

Mabel laughs, "Oh, I got that covered, Grunkle Ford. I have _a lot_." She runs into the bedroom and grabs all her fabrics she had that was stuffed under the bed when Stan moved their things to the new RV. She comes back out, fabric, needles and thread in hand. "So, let's get started."

* * *

Stan was driving down the open road towards Port Houston, following Ford's directions.

How the hell Ford knew where it was exactly without the use of a real map or even a GPS, Stan will never know. Stan figured that maybe during the years Ford just memorized certain things like that.

Soos was in the passenger seat, reading the directions to Stan as clear as he could. Gideon sat in the back with a few guys that were part of Bud's company, them telling him how great of a leader was and how he had arranged a way to find out about the tapestries.

After an hour or so of consistent driving the group pulls up to a large port. Boats were lined up against the docks, gently swaying from the waves. Most were in great condition while others were covered in mold and plants. The group pulls over and leaves the car, ready to explore the boats to find one that matches what was on Ford's list.

Stanley goes to the one closest, seeing as it looked quite large and in fairly good condition. However, inside was nothing but filled with the eyeball demons and Stan runs away, slamming the door behind him as he heard the thumps of them running into the metal door, leaving dents. He groans as he follows Soos to a second boat, looking a little rusty.

The two explore around, noticing that the boat had many if not all of the specs that was on Ford's list. It would need some cleaning up to do, but for the most part it was in great shape. Stan steps out of the boat and gives a sharp whistle, signaling Gideon and the others. Within a minute Gideon and the others ran up to the boat.

"Stanley, you found a boat?" Gideon asks as he steps onto the boat, it gently swaying causing him to almost lose balance.

"Should be a good one." Stan states, looking over the list again, deciding that maybe he should double check everything. He then goes and explores more inside the boat on his own, telling the others to search for any supplies that would be useful to keep, him opening many small closet doors noticing a lot of canned foods and many blankets. The engine was the right kind that Ford listed when he checked the engine room section of the boat, so it should be pretty fast. The four rooms were tiny, but each room had two sets of small bunk beds. Sixteen people could go to Europe, but they probably weren't going to bring that many.

A growl erupts from a small closet at the end of the main hallway. Without missing a beat, Stan takes out his handgun from his holster and made sure it was loaded and the safety off. Slowly, he walks towards the closet, one hand cautiously outstretched to open the door. His hand was shaking as it grips the handle and swiftly opens it, gun pointing into the space.

Inside was what appeared to be a dog, except it wasn't a dog. Its fur was black and inky looking, every movement causing it to shift like a shadow. The eyes were a brilliant white, looking fluid as it moves. The muzzle of the beast had a red mask, smooth and intricate looking black designs etched into it, only its white eyes and blood stained teeth shown.

The beast crawls out of the closet, causing Stan to move backwards, now putting both hands on his gun. The old con man raises his weapon, aiming straight for the eyes of the mask. Just as he goes to pull the trigger the monster lunges towards Stan, but evaporates into a black mist. Suddenly Stan stumbles forward, the canine monster crashing into him.

Stan gets slammed onto the ground, his arm with the gun pinned underneath him, feeling the large weight of the monster almost crushing his old spine. He grunts, trying to move his gun out without accidently shooting himself. Something warm brushes against his left ear, a low rumble sending chills up his spine.

A roar sounds from the monster as its claws dug into Stan's back, causing the old man to yelp in pain. Stan couldn't move suddenly as the monster's teeth nipped the back of his neck.

 _A paralysis poison!?_ Stan though frantically. _Haven't had that since Columbia…_

With a mighty paw, the canine monster flips Stan over as it steps off his back. It then uses its teeth to grab the collar of Stan's sweater and began dragging him. The gun that had been so tightly gripped in Stan's hand had then slipped through his numb fingers, it making a thump on the ground.

 _No… no…! Surely someone had heard me scream…?_

He was suddenly dropped on the ground when the canine roars angrily in pain, the sound of soft and muffled projectiles hitting its flank. Stan out of the corner of his eye sees that they were arrows from a crossbow. He sees that one of the young men from Bud's group, Dave he thinks the name was, aiming at the beast as Soos and Gideon come from behind to grab Stan out of the way. Gideon grabbed Stan's gun that he had dropped and aimed at the canine monster, ready to shoot if necessary.

The monster roars again and then lunges towards Dave, turning into mist once more to disappear. Blood then splatters from a surprised Dave's neck, his head sliding off his shoulders, a scarlet fountain flowing. The monster was in its solid form behind him, its one clawed dripping with scarlet, and the body slumps over.

Gideon gasped in horror and shot with the pistol in his hands, aiming at the monster. Or he tried to anyway… every bullet missed the beast, hitting whatever dusty pictures that were hanging on the wall, shattering glass. Gideon runs out of bullets, it only making clicking sounds. A look of panic crosses his features.

"Come on, Mr. Pines, let's get you out of here…" Soos says as he grabs Stan from underneath his armpits to drag him away.

The other person who had known Dave didn't have time to mourn, instead he raised his own crossbow and an arrow shoots cleanly through the monster's head as the monster jumped towards him, it slumping to the ground with a black puddle forming beneath it. The young man then goes and grabs Dave's crossbow and goes through his clothes to grab pictures that were there.

Quickly, the group exits the boat, all collapsing into the dirt once off the docks. Stan was getting feeling back, slowly, him clenching and unclenching his hands to get rid of the numbness. He looks onto the boat, thinking off the needless death that just happened.

"Despite… what has happened…" Stan mumbles as he stands up, staggering since his legs were still mostly paralyzed. "That is the boat we need… so we got to clean it up… and properly bury Dave…"

Soos and the young man gave a definite nod, them going back to the boat. Gideon stayed with Stan, staring at the gun with wide eyes, his hands shaking to the point where Stan just takes the gun from the boy's hands and puts it in his holster.

"It's okay," Stan tells him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You've only just began learning, and that was a scary situation, no one blames you for missing…" The boy nods his head, still feeling bad.

Soos brings out Dave's body and head out of the boat, him saying that the other guy, George, was cleaning up the mess and getting rid of the demon's body. The small group once the body was buried and the boat was cleaned did a silent vigil for the fallen young man, who was practically still a kid as far as Stan was concerned.

Stan gets his radio out.

"Ford? You there? Over." He says into it.

 _"_ _Roger, loud and clear, Stanley. Over."_ Ford replies from the other end. _"I was starting to get worried for a minute… I didn't hear from you guys."_

"We… had a run in with a demon… one of the people I brought…" Stan's voice trails off, not wanting to say it.

 _"…_ _I see…"_ was Ford's response, sadness was thick in his voice.

Stan then tries to be a little bit cheerier, "But hey, we found a boat, everything that was on your list. So… as soon as we get back we can pick out the people to come with us to Greenland…" he didn't really nail it, his voice cracking with emotion at random spots.

 _"_ _Right… see you soon then. Over and out."_ Ford says as there was a click, signaling Ford ending the conversation.

As everyone got into the car, Stan now getting full feeling in his body again, the old con man goes into the trunk and grabs a can of black spray paint. He goes up to the boat that they had picked and writes on the side with his messy handwriting, "Pines-O-War".

"We're coming, Dipper, don't you worry, kiddo."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hello everyone! Hopefully this wasn't too long or too boring! I wanted to add a little bit of Ford and Mabel bonding and to have Ford realize how much in common he does have with Mabel.

Thanks again to all of you who read and support this! It really does mean a lot! Stay tuned!

~Skye Hendersen~


	18. Chapter 18: Going Under

**Chapter 18: Going Under**

Mabel had finally sewn the finishing touches of the flag when Grunkle Stan walks back into the RV, him looking exhausted and a lot of grime on his face.

"Stanley?" Ford calls to his brother as he gets up from his seat at the table. "You're alright… right?" he asks, worried about his brother.

"Not me you should be asking…" Stan firmly says as he gestures Ford to the window, who walks up to it. Outside George was handing the pictures and crossbow he obtained from Dave's corpse to the dead young man's older mother, who began sobbing hysterically. "That young man's friend, Dave, gave his life trying to help me… I'm just an old man who doesn't have much left, but that kid couldn't get his full life…" He then pats Ford on the shoulder and begins to walk away toward where his small room was on the RV. "I'm going to take a nap… you decide who is going, there are sixteen beds on that boat, four to a room. If you don't want sixteen going to pick sixteen then." He then goes into the room and shuts the door with a sigh.

Mabel looks up from underneath the hat, her brown eyes wide with worry. "Grunkle Ford, what happened?" she asks him as she smooths out the finished flag.

"Someone died…" he says with a heavy sigh, sitting back next to her. He glances at the flag, impressed by her craftsmanship, momentarily forgetting the added person to the death list.

The base color of the flag was a deep royal blue, the wheel golden with the symbols a signature color. The pine tree was a cyan blue, the ice bag was a light blue, the question mark a forest green, the crescent shape was a maroon, the six fingered hand was a different colored gold, the stitched heart was a bright red, the star with the eye in the center was a powder blue, the shooting star was golden with the rainbow tail matching what was on Mabel's sweaters, the llama was a hot pink, and the glasses was black. The Mystery Shack was embroidered in the center of the wheel in a fine black outline, and the colors were filled in with embroidery as well. In bold white letters outline in black was "Take Back the Falls – Pines-O-War". The final touch that she worked on before Stan entered was adding the overlapped Mystery Twins symbols on the sides.

"At least his death won't be in vain…" Mabel says softly, thinking about what Stan said about the young man risking his life to save her grunkle's. "He made sure we got a boat secured so we can get the tapestries… to save Dipper. He will be remembered a hero…" the young girl sets the flag to the side and goes to the window, seeing George comfort Dave's mother.

For a moment she wondered how her and Dipper's parents' had felt during the beginning of the spread of Weirdmageddon. Were they worried, did they try to call the Mystery Shack and panic when Stan didn't answer? Questions flood in Mabel's mind of what possibly could've went through their heads. It brought tears to her eyes, however, she felt worse for the woman outside the window, whose child is now dead. It was bad seeing your parents' dead, but knowing your child is gone… that had to be unbearable.

When she turns back to the table, she saw that Ford was making another list. She couldn't help think that it must be hereditary as Dipper always made lists for everything. Mabel looks over his shoulder and sees a list of people in different categories. In a category that said "Obvious" in big bold letters and underlined were the people needed for the wheel. Seven of the sixteen spots were already taken by the people of the wheel. In another category listed "Maybe?" had George's name and a few others she didn't recognize.

"I say we shouldn't take so many people…" Ford informs her. "That'd be too many… also if these rooms are so small the extra beds can be used as storage."

"What if we bring Melody and Manly Dan?" Mabel suggests. The old scientist nods and puts their names under the "Maybe?" and crossed out the couple of names that Mabel had not recognized. "I honestly think that would be it… like you said, we don't want too many people… and I guess Waddles should stay here in the RV then…"

Ford looks up, "Yeah, we are not bringing your pet pig… that'd be too much of a hassle." He states as he writes under the category "Absolutely Not!" the pet's name. He then hands Mabel the list. "Go tell that George fellow that he is welcome to join us, but if he doesn't want to he doesn't have to, and let Melody and Manly Dan know that they are coming. I know Manly Dan would want to go, Wendy is his daughter right?" Mabel nods as she takes the list and hurries out of the RV.

She goes to Melody, who was talking with Soos, and tells her about her going on the boat to Greenland. Melody nods and said that she would love to help. With a wave Mabel goes and finds Manly Dan, who was showing his sons how to properly hunt something down with an axe. The girl tells the lumberjack about him going on the boat and gives a firm nod of his head, stating that he will help save his daughter.

The last one to go up to was George. As she approaches him she stops for a moment, noting his dark blonde hair and his stony gray eyes. He notices her and waves gently, a sad smile on his face. He honestly looked no older then her.

"Hello," Mabel greets as she walks up to him. "I'm Mabel, I don't think we ever introduced ourselves." She holds out a hand.

"Yeah, I know who you are." George replies as he shakes her hand. "I'm George Grand, nice to meet you. I'm… sorry about your brother… that guy is pretty cool doing what he did to save you."

Mabel glances away, adjusting the hat on her head. "Yeah…" she whispers hoarsely.

"Oh, I didn't mean to bring that up!" George yelps in surprise, seeing her expression. "I'm so sorry! I just lost my childhood best friend… I'm not thinking clearly…"

"I'm sorry for your loss…" Mabel tells him, really meaning it. "He was brave doing what he did. I'll make his mom a sweater or something… just because I feel bad, Grunkle Stan feels guilty too… How old was your friend?"

George swallows. "He would've turned sixteen next month… he's a few months older than me…"

Mabel nods slowly as she takes out the list. "So, um, my Grunkle Ford wants to know if you would like to come to Greenland with us…?" she asks him. "You don't have to… esoecially what just happened-"

"I'll go," George interrupts, hitting his open hand with a fist. "That triangular demon is gonna pay for what he did. So, I'm in for any plan that can take him down." He then sees the girl's face and clears his throat. "Sorry about that… I got a little carried away…"

"It's okay," Mabel assures him, waving it off. "I don't know when we are leaving… probably tomorrow morning… so I suggest you pack up whatever you need and tell your family."

George looked uncomfortable at the mention of family, but gives a small smile nonetheless. "Alright, Mabel, I will get ready then. I'm assuming you're going to, because of the wheel thing right? I was with Melody getting Soos, so I know all about that." Mabel nods. "Alright, see you later then! Oh, and your sweater is nice…" he then waves a goodbye and goes to a black car, getting items from the trunk.

Her face blushed as she walked away toward the RV. She walks inside, seeing Ford with a box and was packing supplies such as food and dry cooking ingredients. She figures that she should pack some stuff too, especially sweaters and yarn since Greenland is supposed to be cold.

"Oh, Mabel," Ford says when he sees her. "Did they agree to come with?"

"Yeah, Grunkle Ford." She replies as she heads toward her room. "They're all coming, I'm just gonna pack some stuff. Greenland is cold, so I'll knit some more sweaters after finishing yours… when are we leaving?"

"We are going to head to Port Houston at dawn." Ford replies, finding more canned goods and placing them in the box. "Don't pack too heavily though… Do pack some of your hunting gear, like that thick coat and such."

Mabel nods as she shuts her door behind her. She finds one of her bags that she had first brought to Gravity Falls a year and a half ago, it still having some of her embroidery that she added to it. She takes out whatever was in it, mainly some clothes that were a little small for her. She then packs it with all her contents from her crafting basket, noticing a piece of paper in the mix. She grabs it and her heart drops when she sees it was Dipper's handwriting.

 _"_ _Mabel, if you are reading this note, then it is most likely I made a deal with Bill. Look, don't be upset, the reason I would've done it is to make sure you and Grunkle Stan were safe. I suspected that this would eventually happen, which is why I devised a plan. Remember when Grunkle Stan said that Great Uncle Ford had an idea to use the McGucket's memory gun to erase Bill from his mind but couldn't because of the metal plate? My plan is… there really is no easy way to even write this…_

 _"_ _If I become Bill's puppet I want you,_ and only you Mabel _, to take the memory gun and wipe my mind completely. Don't just put 'Bill Cipher', that'd just erase memories of him. You need to erase_ me _fully, my whole mind. Bill's weakness is the mind space, so if my mind is destroyed with him in it, he will die too._

 _"_ _I really hope it doesn't come to that, Mabel, I hope to God it doesn't, I wouldn't want to forget my sister. But please, if it does happen heed my request. I have done so much for you, and I always will as your twin brother, so please just do this one thing for me without complaint._

 _"_ _I love you Mabel, and Grunkle Stan and Ford, which will never be erased from my heart. Love, Dipper."_

* * *

The next morning the group that was going was standing in front of the RV, waiting for the Pines to get ready to leave.

Ford was wearing the new sweater that Mabel had made for him, his usual tan trench coat over it, the flag draped over his left arm. He makes sure that the things he packed were in order, all the food and clothes.

Stan was wearing a black sweater with his crescent symbol on it, a white dress shirt underneath, his normal maroon fez sitting atop his gray head. He had his small bag all packed, mainly filled with knitted hats and sweaters, but it did have his hunters coat and an extra handgun in it.

Mabel had her two bags all packed, one filled with her art supplies and Dipper's note, the other with her clothes. She wore a blue sweater with a pine tree surrounded with books, a sweater she originally made for Dipper but decided she was going to wear it, and thus why the sleeves were a little big on her. In a separate cloth bag she had sweaters that she made for Melody, Manly Dan, and George. At some point during the middle of the night when Ford had dozed off and Stan was in a deep sleep she had went into Stan's room and grabbed the memory gun. At the last minute she stuffed it in with her art supplies before leaving her room, saying goodbye to Waddles and fixing the hat on her head.

"Ready to go, sweetie?" Stan asks her softly, putting a hand on her shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze.

"Ready as I will ever be." She replies, giving a ghost of a smile.

Ford gives a firm nod and opens the RV door, slowly going down the steps, and the two Pines behind him followed. Once out he explains the plan one more time, ignoring the few yawns from Soos and Pacifica, who looked like they were about to fall asleep standing up.

The plan was that they would get into two vans, one being driven by Ford the other by Stan, and have an extra car follow them with their supplies and with people to drive the vans back. Only about ten people were going to Greenland, the rest was to stay behind and keep an eye on the survivors since they can use weapons.

Mabel gets in the van that Stan was driving, along with Soos, Melody, and George. Gideon, McGucket, Pacifica, and Manly Dan pile into the van that was being driven by Ford. Soon the engines roared to life and they were on their way back to Port Houston, Ford leading the way.

George sat next to Mabel in the back on the van, Soos and Meoldy in the seats in front of them, and Stan driving up front with their bags in the passenger seat. The drive was long and even hot, but Stan only turned on the old air conditioner that barely looked because he didn't want to open the windows to get dust in.

"So, I made you a sweater…" Mabel tells George, a little awkward.

"Oh?" he says, a slight smile on his face. "What kind?"

Mabel slightly blushes. "Well, I only made you a basic one, not one with a symbol, so I made you a forest green colored one. But hey, if you don't like it say the word and I'll make you a new one and put a symbol on it." She spoke quickly, obviously a little nervous. The only guys she really ever sat by was her grunkles, Soos, and Dipper, so she wasn't awkward around them.

George gives a soft laugh, "I'm sure it's fine, Mabel." He gives her a thankful look. "Thank you very much though, I do enjoy sweaters… well, hoodies and sweatshirts mostly, but a handmade sweater is even better." He gives a smile.

After an hour or so drive they pull up to a port, the boats gently swaying from the waves. They get out to stretch their legs and grab their things and Stan leads the group to the boat. Ford chuckles when he sees Stan's messy handwriting of the "Pines-O-War".

It was a universal decision to have girls share a room and guys share another. Melody, Pacifica, and Mabel were to share a room, and when Wendy is back they'll rearrange again so no one was sleeping in a room alone. In one room for the guys Stan, Ford, McGucket, and Gideon shared, while another room had Manly Dan, Soos, and George and would have room for Robbie. The extra bedrooms were used as storage for their items and clothes until things could be rearranged again.

Ford finds a place for the flag and hoists it up, the flag fluttering in the ocean wind. He stares at it for a moment, thinking of how he and Stanley as kids used their shirts as flags for the boat they called "Stan-O-War", them chanting at the top of their lungs, "Kings of New Jersey!" It was a sweet memory he had of his brother, one that he always cherished.

"Ready to go, Sixer?" Stan calls from behind him. Ford turns around and gives a small nod. "Alright, so who is sailing, you or me?"

"I will, Stanley." Ford replies. "You should probably rest a little bit more, you had a rough day yesterday."

Stan nods as he follows Ford to the main room to control the boat. It was very small, and it can only fit about two people. Ford gets to the main console and starts up the boat, praying that gas was still in it. The engine roars to life and the fuel and battery were perfect.

"We got extra fuel and batteries from the nearby good boats if we need it," Stan says as he sits next to Ford, a bottle of water in hand that he got from the cooler they brought. "We also got whatever food, medical supplies, water, fishing supplies, and extra parts from the other boats too."

"Good," Ford tells him, his hands on the wheel. The wheel looked a lot like a steering wheel to a car, not the kind of wheel associated with older ships. He never really drove a boat, or sailed…? He couldn't really think of the term right now, since the two twins have never actually went on a boat besides the one they were trying to rebuild. "It may… get a little bumpy."

"Do you want me to drive… sail…? Gah…" Stan asks his twin as he scratches his head, moving his fez slightly. "I did have a small fishing boat in Gravity Falls, so I do know how to sail, even though this is more state of the art it should still be similar. I even taught Soos and when he got his own boat he took the kids out a few times."

Ford nods and moves away from the wheel where Stan took his place. He made sure everything was in order before moving the boat away from the port. He looks out the window to see Mabel with the others on deck, looking at the waves and jumping with excitement that they are finally leaving.

"Let's just hope we can handle out there…" Ford murmurs. "I have no idea if this boat can sail across the ocean…"

Stan groans, "Well, Sixer, too late now, we are leaving." Stan pilots the boat to the end of the port where it opens out into the ocean. Birds cawed in the air, whether they were normal birds or demonic he didn't know or really care. He just needed to get to Greenland. With Ford as his navigator the boat cuts through the water at a nice pace, making Ford think they should be in Greenland in about five days tops.

Mabel was on the deck, letting the sea water spray her face, the short brown hair that framed her face being plastered to her skin. Dipper's hat was getting wet as well, feeling soppy on her head. The breeze felt cool on her damp skin, making her shiver slightly. They were finally on their way… to get Wendy's tapestry and then Robbie's…

 _And we will save Dipper…_

"Mind if I join you?" a voice from behind her asks. She turns around and sees George, his dark blonde hair sticking up in random spots from running his hand through it. Mabel shakes her head, gesturing toward the railing. "It's nice to be on the ocean… my brother and I would going boating out on the Great Lakes, so this salt water is new to me."

"I lived in Piedmont, California, so salt water is familiar to me…" Mabel tells him, a sad look on her face. "I remember when Dipper and I were very little we would go to the beach with our parents… sometimes our Grandpa Pines would come too… Dipper hated going in the water, he would rather run around the beach trying to dig for treasure." She gives a small smile, remembering his face when he actually found a lost diamond bracelet buried and he gave it to her because according to him she was "the best sister in the world".

"That sounds nice…" George says wistfully, almost wishing he had a nice memory to share like that. "I lived in Michigan and never really left unless it was to go to Ohio, I always boated mainly on Lake Erie." He then shakes his head, preferably not wanting to remember.

"You have a brother though?" Mabel then asks him, wiping her face of excess water.

" _Had_." He corrected. "During this whole mess my brother tried to help out, he was trying to help people get to a safe zone but ended up getting killed by one of those demons… my parents went the same way. I was either too big of a coward to have been out there to help or I was the one that was the most logical."

Mabel flinches, feeling bad that she brought it up. "Sorry…" she whispers and apology softly.

George looks at her with wide eyes. "No, no, it's okay… you didn't know, you were just making conversation. Remember, I asked about your brother too…" he explains to her. His hands were up in a surrender position, showing her that he meant no harm in his words.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew by and the pine tree hat on Mabel's head was blown off her hat, diving in to the ocean. Her heart pounds as a gasp escapes from her mouth. Without even thinking she puts one leg on the rail to hoist herself up and climbs over.

"Mabel!?" George shouts. "What are you-?!" his voice was cut off by the sound of wind in Mabel's ears.

She jumped over the side of the boat, her feet hitting the cool water first. Her head goes under, and for a moment she couldn't tell which way was up. There was shouting muffled though the water, but she ignored it. Her head breaks through the surface, her gulping for air, and she wipes her eyes. About ten feet in front of her was the hat, slowly about to sink from being waterlogged.

Mabel paddles herself towards the hat, her body being drained of energy. Her thick sweater absorbed water, adding weight to her, making it difficult to keep her head above water. As the hat sank under, she did as well, but she firmly gripped it in her hands, not letting the current take it. She was slowly going under, and with a kick she tries to get to the surface.

Something then suddenly wraps itself around her ankle, causing her to scream, losing whatever air she had. Forcibly she was being pulled down, her eyes opening, stinging from the salt water, she looks and sees a large serpent-like creature ribboning in the water. Its tail was tight around Mabel's ankle. Her vision was beginning to spot around the edges, black and red, almost like lights. Mabel's chest began burning horribly, from lack of oxygen and the increasing water pressure. If drowning wasn't going to kill her then maybe her lungs exploding would.

The sea serpent opened its large jaw, a roar was muffled through the water. Mabel gasps in horror but immediately beings suffocating, water going into her lungs. Slowly she was losing consciousness, eyes fluttering shut, refusing to let her grip falter on Dipper's hat.

A beam of light blue light cuts pass her, hitting the serpent in its face, causing to shake its entire body roughly. Strong hands go around Mabel and she barley felt the relief of pressure of the tail releasing her leg. Black, inky tendrils float around her in the water, swirling into her hair.

Her eyes slowly opened, seeing her Grunkle Ford aiming his interdimensional gun towards the sea demon once again. He pulls the trigger, a beam going towards it, and once it hits the scales a crystal of ice starts forming around it. Ford then makes a beeline to the surface, putting Mabel ahead of himself so she would get air first.

Both Pines' heads breaks through the surface, Ford coughing violently. A ladder was dropped on the side of the boat, Ford swimming with a limp Mabel towards it. He gently puts Mabel over his shoulder, her hand still firmly gripped on the hat to the point that her knuckles were a bone white, and he climbs the ladder, grunting with effort from the weight of his water logged niece.

Ford gets Mabel over the railing of the boat, water raining onto the deck. Mabel crumples to the deck, Ford followed, him coughing up a bit of water. He looks over to see his great niece, her face slowly turning blue. He goes and puts his fingers to her neck, feeling a slow and thread-like pulse. She wastn't breathing.

Melody then steps to the side, first aid kit in hand. She then automatically begins CPR on the girl, Melody counting under her breath. She gives to rescue breaths and continues the cycle, going on for about four more times before checking for pulse and breathing again.

Ford sits next to Mabel, water dripping from his hair and coat. Stan was standing next to him, looking at Mabel with wide, worried brown eyes, a hand to his chest to calm is pounding heart.

A cough escapes Mabel, her turning to the side and coughing up water and bile. The girl gasps for air, her hand with the hat gripped so tightly going to her chest. Next to her Melody continues to encourage her to keep on coughing until only bile was coming out.

Without missing a beat both Stan and Ford crush Mabel with a hug, overlapping. She grunts with surprise, but gives a small smile nonetheless, seeing her grunkles.

Ford then pulls Mabel to face him. "Why the hell would you do that, Mabel!?" he yells at her, his voice shaking with relief and anger all at the same time.

"You could've drowned!" Stan adds, his tone the same as his brother's. "You can't just jump off the side of the boat! What if you were alone? Or no one noticed you were gone until it was too late?! Not to mention that the ocean is swimming with these demons!"

Weakly, Mabel lifts Dipper's hat. Both the older twins looked between it and her, knowing that she jumped over for it. Ford sighs, putting his fingers to the corners of his eyes and rubbing, a habit both him and Stanley had developed after seeing their father doing it so many times.

"Mabel, sweetie," Stan sympathizes. "Dipper's hat isn't something you should risk your life for…"

"I have to give it to him…" Mabel weakly murmurs, her voice hoarse sounding and it was so soft Ford had to put his ear close to her mouth. "I _will_ give it to him…" she then passes out, leaning against Ford, her breathing slightly ragged sounding, like she was congested.

But still in her hand was the blue and white pine tree hat.


	19. Chapter 19: The Cipher's Fun

**Chapter 19: The Cipher's Fun**

 **WARNING:** This chapter is graphic. If you do not like gore then do not read further, just skip to the next chapter when it becomes available. The reason why it is graphic because of a certain character's development for the next part of the story.

Again, I am sorry for this... I guess disturbing chapter.

* * *

Bipper slowly walks down the steps that had led to the screaming throne, his shoes gently clacking against the golden marble.

With a flick of his hand, a blue flamed portal summons in front of him, and he steps through. In Dipper's mind he sees and feels what is going on, his inner mind tense. After going through the portal Bipper was now standing in a different pyramid, gazing at a different throne that thankfully was not like the gruesome one, above it the tapestry of Wendy hung.

Bipper goes up to the throne and sits with one leg crossed over the other, his hands threaded together. He begins tapping his fingers together, humming darkly. He had a plan, a plan he had thought of the moment Pine Tree became his puppet.

"Well, Pine Tree, while we wait for your stupid family to come here, I think we should have a… little fun."

 _I don't like the way he said that…_

Bipper then snaps his fingers again to reveal another blue flamed portal. He then begins using his hand to scroll through images, like going through a smart phone. An evil grin flashes across his face, stopping at an images of a small group of survivors in Greenland. There were two families, with about a total of ten people, six of them were older children.

 _No…_

"Oh _yes_ , Pine Tree," Bill says back to Dipper's inner mind. "You're my puppet now… so I might as well give you a little… initiation so to speak." He gives a dark chuckle.

 _I am not hurting them…_

"Oh you're not, Pine Tree." Bill assures him. A sigh of relief within Dipper's inner mind. _"You're going to kill them."_ The normal shrill tone of Bill Cipher goes down a few octaves, sounding menacing and sadistic. The inner mind of Dipper Pines gasps in horror, then begins screaming.

 _No you can't… those are kids…_

Bill scoffs, "They are just small humans, and it makes no difference to me what age they are. All humans are the same and deserve to be treated as insignificant beings."

Bipper then raises his hand, the blue flames licking across his skin turning into a brilliant red. He then starts to go through the portal, but was staggering, like he was resisting.

 _No!_

Bipper raises an eyebrow. "Really, Pine Tree?" he says lowly. "You're going to try to resist…?" his eyes narrowed as they glowed a brilliant gold. _"Maybe torturing these people will make you learn your place as my puppet, Pine Tree…"_

The possessed Dipper goes through the portal, stepping in front of the group. They look up to him, confused. Then they noticed the golden eyes as they gasped in horror, jumping back. The group knew what the golden eyes meant… they just weren't expecting a young teenaged boy to be possessed.

 _"_ _Well hello, Meat Bags!"_ Bipper greets in a shrill tone. He gives a slight bow, the brown hair on his head moving gently with the momentum, fully showing off the Big Dipper birthmark.

The youngest of the children pointed at his forehead. "He got something funny on his head…" the kid said, trying to hide a slight smile. The child's mother forces it to get behind it, her body shaking violently in fear.

 _"_ _Now that is just rude…"_ Bipper coldly responds. He lifts a hand, showing blue flames. _"That's how you treat the lord of this world…? Maybe all of you need to learn some manners…!"_ His voice was now using Dipper's tone, but a much darker version, almost sounding murderous.

One of the fathers of the group raises a gun, pointing at Bipper. The demon cackles with Dipper's tone, a true mockery. As the trigger was pulled Bipper snapped his fingers, flames disintegrating the bullet. With a wave of a hand the man with the gun began scratching himself furiously, ripping open his skin and bugs started crawling out. Everyone, including Dipper's inner mind, screamed.

With a swift flick of a wrist a sword appears in Bipper's right hand. The blade was a brilliant silver, a faint blue aura around it. Gold decorated the hilt of the sword, it fitting in Bipper's hand perfectly. With a sadistic smile he approaches the screaming and scratching man and uses the sword to behead him, the head falling as a fountain of blood sprayed across the survivors and splatters on Bipper's face.

Bright scarlet spots on Bipper's pale skin, making him look more demonic than the glowing gold eyes. However the head of the man kept screaming in pain and horror, his face twisted in agony. Bipper was keeping the head alive, showing the survivors, until he finally had enough and stomped on the head, the skull and brains exploding underneath.

Some kid threw up in horror and disgust, another looked like it was going to faint. Bipper had no idea what gender they were, and he didn't _care_. He wanted them all _dead_.

"So…" Bipper says in a sadistically happy tone. "Who is next?" he tilts his heads to the side, his golden eyes wide in an insane way, his white smile huge and twistedly maniacal, the blood that was splattered across his face making him look crazed.

The remaining survivors begin running, the mothers trying to keep the children safe. With an insane cackle Bipper snaps his fingers and made them all froze in place. Even though he enjoys a good chase, slowly killing these people in the most agonizing way was going to bring tears of happiness to him.

 _"_ _Let's start with the one that made fun of my puppet's birthmark~!"_

* * *

A pile of chopped bodies lays before him, blood soaked on them from head to toe as well as guts and other bodily fluids; the bodies were so mutilated that they were beyond unrecognizable.

Bipper levitates above the bodies with bright scarlet on his hands and face, some in his hair. None was on his clothes because that would make his puppet look unpresentable. Slowly, he was using a rag he found in the corpses' supplies to clean the silver blade of the sword he used to kill.

 _You monster… they did nothing…!_

Bipper laughs aloud, "Yes they did, Pine Tree, they _existed._ " He then throws the blood soaked rag onto the ground and floats back onto the ground. In an instant the sword disappears and with a snap of his fingers another portal appeared to be in front of the pyramid that held Wendy's tapestry.

"I think this would make a lovely welcome gift…" Bipper says lovingly, almost like a mom saying she would make cookies for her child's friends. "Don't you agree, _Pine Tree?_ "

Dipper says nothing in his inner mind. He just existed, reliving the past hour of murder he just committed. He saw how his hand swiftly used the sword to cut off every appendage on one person, he saw how he used the sword to slice the skin off another to reveal the skeletal muscle beneath it, and he saw how he dissected a person alive and shoved their own heart down their throats…

Bipper uses his powers to move the mutilated corpses through the portal and sets them in front of the pyramid. With a snap of his fingers they were arranged in a sadistic way, like sitting in chairs to enjoy to outside air, and on swing sets and slides. Bipper was treating them like they were his personal dolls.

 _"_ _Now we wait for our guests…"_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Again, I am very sorry for this chapter... I did cut out a lot of extremely graphic stuff...

Also, I really do love kids and wish to see them not get hurt (that's why I didn't write them getting hurt I just skipped over it), but this was done to torture Dipper and his mentality more than anything...

~Skye Hendersen~


	20. Chapter 20: Friends

**Chapter 20: Friends**

Mabel slowly blinks open her eyes, her head pounding and her chest tight.

She was in one of the beds in the room the girls were sharing, blankets all around her and some of her sweaters as well to keep her warm. Hanging next to her on a hook was Dipper's hat drying. Mabel darts her eyes around the room, noting she was on the bottom bunk, and saw that Ford was sleeping in the bottom bunk bed on the other side of the tiny room.

His mouth was open and he snored very lightly, his cracked glasses askew on his face. His dark gray hair was sticking up in random places and his five o'clock shadow was a little thicker than from before, almost as thick as Stan's. The old scientist had his right arm draped behind him and his left foot rested on the floor next to the bed. In general he looked like he was in an odd sleeping position.

"Grunkle… Ford?" Mabel barely whispered, her throat feeling like sandpaper.

Ford sits up, the blanket falling and he looks over to his great niece. A smile of relief crossed his features. "Mabel!" he cried out, his voice so soft and caring. "Are you okay? Are you feeling ill by any chance? Are you cold?" he rattled off so many questions that Mabel's head spun with confusion.

"I'm just tired and sore…" she admits, a small sheepish smile on her face. She then grabs Dipper's hat, which was still a little damp, and puts it on her head.

Ford looks at the hat, a sad look on his face. He remembers his first few years in Bill's dimension, how he felt so sick and alone. Once in a while he would take out the photo of himself and Stanley as kids on their boat and remanence in his memories. For years he would play scenarios in his head about what if he acted differently, or about if he said something else to Stanley when Ford sent the postcard to get him to Gravity Falls.

Mabel was treating that hat the same he treated the photo. She was using it as some crutch to her brother. She is most likely thinking about what to say to him when they rescue him, maybe tell him he is stupid for giving up his life to be a puppet. But in the end she really loves her brother.

Just like Stanford loves his brother Stanley.

Ford had gotten out of the bed as was kneeling next to Mabel's, he ruffled the girl's brown hair gently. "Just… don't do that ever again… okay?" he tells her softly. "You had us really worried…"

"How did you know I jumped?" she asks her grunkle curiously.

"Well, besides George screaming your name and calling for help," Ford explains. "I saw you jump from the captain's room. Stanley stopped the boat immediately and before he could ask what we should do I was already running out and jumping over after you."

Mabel gives the old scientist a smile. "Thank you, Grunkle Ford." She tells him. She then sits up and throws her arms around him, giving him a hug. "You're welcome, sweetheart." His voice sounded choked when he replied, almost like he was about to cry. "And I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Ford leaves the room so that Mabel could get dressed privately. When she exited the room she was wearing a dark blue sweater that had her family's names stitched into them along with their symbols. At the very bottom of the sweater a phrase was stitched: "Mystery Twins x2"

Together the great uncle and the great niece walked into a fairly decent sized kitchen, everyone standing around eating canned fruit from a can. Soos hands Mabel and Ford their own along with plastic forks. Mabel got peaches and Ford got pineapples.

"Wanna switch?" they both asked each other in unison. They both stared at each other for a moment and give a soft laugh before switching. The two stood next to each other while Stan was telling a story on how he was kicked out of most of the United States, being over dramatic at certain points, getting a few laughs out of the group.

Mabel puts another forkful of pineapples in her mouth as she suppressed a laugh when Stan was flailing his arms around pretending he was falling. After swallowing she asked Ford, "Was Grunkle Stan like that when you two were little?"

Ford swallows his peaches. "Oh yeah… I think now that he's old he wants to be more dramatic…" he gave a chuckle. "I remember when we were young… very young, I want to say about four or five years old, we broke Ma's phone and she couldn't do her phone psychic job." He then laughs at the memory. "So… so Stanley's solution was to break the window as well and he told Ma and our dad that some giant bird came in, broke the window, made the glass go outside, and broke the phone. He told it with such a straight face I almost believed him."

Mabel laughs, "That's probably why he can make up so many good stories for the stuff he made for the Mystery Shack!" she eats another forkful of pineapples.

The group listens to Stan's tales, him going on to tell about for when Mabel and Dipper first arrived in Gravity Falls. He told everyone how he scared Dipper week one, and how he helped the twins with the zombies. Stan's stories sounded much happier when talking about the kids.

Everyone listens and laughs at his stories, Mabel interjecting a few times to put her part of the story. She and Stan were being so over dramatic about everything, laughing at each other's made up parts together. Stan would give Mabel an affectionate noogie, and she would scream in laughter and try to get away from him.

Ford smiles to himself. Despite the image that Stanley had made himself out to be, he was still the same as when they were kids, very loving and protective. Even though Stan was the younger twin he always protected Ford from bullies and was the first to defend him in everything. Most of the time he would take the blame that something Ford did, just so Ford wouldn't be punished. Stanley was a family man through and through, and Ford was happy to see that part of his twin's personality still deeply part of him.

* * *

Later in the evening after many hours of sailing, Stan was laying in his small bed thinking.

Ever since Dipper had been taken by Bill he couldn't help but think of all the times he had made fun of him. He had always pushed Dipper over the edge, getting the kid mad at things easily. Stan had made fun of his nerdiness, his voice cracking, his bad habit of chewing pens… he had done it because Dipper had reminded him so much of Ford when he was younger. When looking back at his pictures he can see a great resemblance that the three shared, the same brown hair with the little tuft of hair in the back, and wide brown eyes that sought adventure.

Stan hears the door creak, Ford and McGucket walking in, talking about some mechanical mumbo jumbo that he didn't bother to pay attention to them. The two talked constantly about some wiring about something or another when McGucket approaches Stan.

"Heya there, Stanley!" McGucket says in his usual excited drawl.

Stan sits up fast, his head hitting the bunk above him. "HOT BELGIAN WAFFLES!" Stan screamed in pained, his hands to his head to try to suppress the throbbing pain.

Ford laughs loudly, his dark gray hair bouncing from his movement. "You still say that?" he asks his brother. "I can't believe that…"

Stan glares at Ford, his hand still rubbing his head. "Oh, I cuss… it's just… when Mabel and Dipper came to the Shack I just… used different phrases." When he and Ford were kids they lived in the family Pawn Shop and it was next to a small restaurant called "Hot Belgian Waffles", so whenever Stan did something wrong as a kid, or hurt himself, he would just scream that instead of "son of a bitch" like his father did when he was mad. Stan then shakes his head, trying not to remember what happened to him when he had uttered those words in front of his parents.

McGucket slaps his leg, laughing, joining with Ford. "That there is hilarious!" he says.

After the laughter dies down Stan goes to lay down in his bed, the door opening and Gideon coming in the room as well. Soon the rest was settling into their beds, getting ready for the night.

As Stan closed his eyes to fall asleep, his glasses off to the side, he gives a small smile, happy to be surrounded by friends and his brother. For the first time in a long while he didn't have a nightmare.

* * *

The air was chilled, her breath shown in the air as she exhaled.

The Pines-O-War was getting closer and closer to Greenland with each passing second. Mabel puts a hand to the blue and white pine tree on her head, making sure it was still on her head safely. She looks over the side to see the water, shivering at the thought of jumping in.

"Not gonna jump again, are you?" George's voice teased from behind her and she jumps.

"Ah!" she yelped. "Um… n-no! Just the opposite actually!" Mabel stammered. She mentally hits herself, she was acting awkward, like _Dipper._

George laughs, "I was kidding you know, Mabel!" he notices the blush on her cheeks. Mabel already had naturally pink cheeks, but now her checks were turning crimson, clearly embarrassed.

"Yeah…" she replies, trying to control her burning cheeks. She then scratches the back of her head, doing a light awkward laugh.

The boat was then approaching a port, a bell ringing, a signal saying that they were going to the land. Mabel stares at the enlarging land, her heart pounding, already seeing a large pyramid in the distance.

 _We are so close…_

In about twenty minutes the boat arrives to the port, both Ford and Stan anchoring it and tying it up to the port so it wouldn't float away. Everyone was on the boardwalk, all bundled in sweaters and thick coats, everyone with knitted hats and scarves. Snow was gently falling from the sky, the air icy as it brushes against bare skin.

As they walked away from port, Stan and Ford looking around the snow dusted cars to see if they could find a suitable one to drive. Finally they found a van and Stan hotwired it, his years of crime finally being of use, and Ford gets in the driver seat. Everyone gets in the van, all feeling warm with each other's body heat. Mabel was sitting next to George, his leg against hers and she felt the heat radiate from him.

The snow in Greenland was starting to get thicker and thicker, a blizzard brewing. But Ford kept his eyes forward, glaring at the approaching pyramid with anger and hate.

 _Bill is going to pay for what he did…_

Ford slams on the brakes, causing everyone to jerk forward with a scream. They look poke their heads up to see through the front window and wonder why Ford would break so suddenly. All their eyes widen when they see what was in front of them.

A bloody wonderland.

In a sickening way mutilated bodies were arranged like dolls in a dollhouse. They weren't covered in snow, some of the snow melting on their bodies as it touched them. Some bodies were arranged in a dance, or some that were smaller were on slides and swings. The ground was covered in blood and guts, some neat footprints among them and the snow.

Mabel gasps. "Grunkle Ford… you don't think…?"

Ford looked grim, his eyes narrowed. "I'm one-hundred percent sure that Bill made Dipper do this…" his voice was barely above a whisper. He couldn't believe that the demon would make Dipper do something so drastic.

They get out of the car, guns in hand. Looking around they just kept seeing more bodies and blood, some more grotesque than others. However, no demons were around, and that made them all uneasy.

Inside the pyramid it was warm, from fires that lined that wall and how thick it was blocking the wind. Mabel looks around, noting the blue flames and how as they followed the path they seemed to get redder and redder. Her stomach was in a knot.

Finally the hallway opens up to a large room, much like the other pyramids. In front of them on a platform with steps leading up to it was a throne made of people that were turned to stone. Sitting on it with one leg crossed over the other, a cheek on a closed fist, and a menacing smile plastered across his face.

Dipper.

 _No… Bipper._

"Well, well, well!" Bipper says in Bill's shrill tone, standing up, his hair moving to reveal the Big Dipper on his forehead. His eyes were lit up in brilliant gold. "Did you guys like the welcoming gift that Pine Tree and I got for you?" he asks, his smile turning dark, twisting evilly.

Mabel's heart dropped to her stomach. Her brother would never smile like that… he was so sweet and Bill was just mocking it.

"You're a monster, Cipher!" Ford shouts at him. "Why would you make Dipper kill all those people!? He's just a kid…!"

Bipper snarls, "Because I _wanted to_ , Fordsy!" He then steps down the steps, his black shoes clicking against the marble. "And also he pissed me off trying to resist… so I made him torture and kill each and every one of those people…" he face darkened, the smile fading from his face. "And now… time to kill someone else."

Stan pushes Mabel behind him, a gun in hand. Mabel peers around her grunkle, seeing Bipper with a raised hand about to snap his fingers.

He snaps loudly and a brilliant blue flames goes to the tapestry that hung about the throne. With wide eyes everyone, with Manly Dan shaking in rage, saw the blue flames lick up the wall and crawl over the tapestry.

However, the tapestry had no damage to it.

Bipper's eyes narrowed with confusion and then rage. Both hands were in tight fists, shaking as red fire surrounded them. He snaps again and again, each blast of fire being more intense than the last. But no matter how much he did, Wendy's tapestry still hung.

 _"_ _WHAT THE HELL IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?"_ Bipper screeches, his shrill voice cracking the floor beneath him.

Mabel then realized about the deal Dipper and Bill made. "She's his friend…!" Mabel then screams at her possessed brother. "You and Dipper made a deal… you can't hurt or kill any of his friends… you can't possess him or anyone else to do it either…" she gives a mischievous smile. "You are bounded by your contract…"

Bipper's face twisted with pure hatred and anger, the golden eyes turning black with a red pupil. _"Oh…"_ He says lowly. _"Oh… very clever, Pine Tree… you actually know how to make a contract!"_

"We are all his friends and family, Bill!" Mabel then states, stepping out from behind Stan. "And you can't hurt us…!

"NOW GIVE ME BACK MY BROTHER!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hello everyone! Thanks for reading again! Sorry if this chapter wasn't as exciting... I just wanted something light after what happened last chapter...

~Skye Hendersen~


	21. Chapter 21: The Ice Bag

**Chapter 21: The Ice Bag**

 _"_ _Not in the slightest chance in Hell, Shooting Star!"_

Bipper's shrill voice slices through the air, full of anger and rage. He was pissed he couldn't do anything to the tapestry. In hindsight he knew he should've destroyed those a long time ago, especially after they got Spectacles and Gideon. Bipper's hands glowed a brilliant red flame, slowly spreading over his body.

"GIVE HIM BACK!" Mabel screams, her eyes full of tears, her hands shaking with grief. "YOU MADE HIM MURDER THOSE PEOPLE, YOU SADISTIC ASSHOLE!"

Bipper gives a twisted smile, and blinks his eyes. "Aw, shucks… you think I'm sadistic? That's so sweet, Shooting Star!" he fans himself, faking being bashful.

Stan had enough. "You stupid tortilla chip, get out of my nephew's body!" the old con man shouted at him. He would've raised his gun, but he didn't want to aim at Dipper…

The well-dressed possessed boy narrows his eyes, looking more demonic. "I suggest you all watch your tone… you don't want to piss me off more than I already am…" he says lowly and dangerously, and this time he used Dipper's voice, which made the Pines' family's skin crawl. He then snaps his fingers and a portal appears, the other side didn't look familiar to the people but Bipper knew where he wanted to go.

"So… _go ahead and get your damn Ice Bag and Stitched Heart…"_ Bipper snarls darkly with Dipper's voice. " _You may be rescuing them… but there is no way in all the levels of Hell that I am going to give up Pine Tree so easily…"_ As he goes to step in the portal he turns around and adds, "Oh… one more thing… the guardian of this pyramid is going to attack you… I'm not sending it mind you, this was the beast's job before Pine Tree and I made our deal, so… _Good luck…_ " he steps through and the portal evaporates, leaving the group in the fire filled pyramid.

Ford stared at where Bipper had stood, seeing the boy looked so crazed and demonic. In a way it reminded him of when before he was knocked into the portal on how he was so paranoid and crazed because of Bill. If it had affected him so badly as a thirty-something year old man psychologically, he couldn't imagine what toll is going to be on Dipper's young mind.

"Mabel," Ford turned to his great niece. "You got your grappling hook, right?" she nods. "Alright, get the tapestry before whatever Bill-" his voice is cut off with a deep rumble. " _Shit…!"_ he cursed under his breath.

The ground caved in beneath the throne, revealing a large black hole, the throne toppling into the abyss. A large, black paw emerges from the hole, than another, and the monster hoists itself up. It roared, shaking the entire pyramid.

It looked like an extremely large demonic lion. Its dark purple mane looked like wisps of gas or flames, giving its black coat an eerie glow. The monster's eyes were a neon green, glowing with hatred, and it opened its large mouth to reveal blood stained teeth as it roared once again. As it slowly prowled towards the group, it growled.

"Damn it…" Stan mutters, getting his rifle that was slung over his shoulder. Manly Dan follows his example with his own handgun and axe in hand, George had his crossbow out and aimed steadily, and even Pacifica had her own rifle and was aiming.

The demonic lion pounces, causing the group the scatter to dodge. Soos pulled Melody out of the way just before a massive paw could hit her leg. Both Pacifica and George aimed and fired toward the monster's face as it had landed, trying to get its eyes. The wisps of the mane glowed and covered its head, shielding from the bullets and arrows and causing them to disintegrate.

Mabel ran forward, going towards Wendy's tapestry. She uses her grappling hook and swings across the room, getting herself higher and higher. Her hands felt sweaty and she could feel her grip starting to falter… she had to hurry. She gets herself to the tapestry, quickly removing it from its hooks, trying not to notice Wendy's pained expression in the image.

A roar causes the pyramid to shake again, loosening the hook from the wall. It slips and Mabel falls, her screaming as the tapestry starts to wrap around her from the speeding wind. She closes her eyes, bracing herself for her body to smash into the ground, except she landed in someone's arms. The person who caught her gave a loud groan and fell, her sitting on top.

"Grunkle Stan!" Mabel shouts, opening her arms to see him crumpled beneath her, his glasses askew on his face and his fez fallen off. "Oh my God, are you okay!?" she asks him, getting off and unraveling herself from the tapestry.

"I'm… fine… sweetie…" Stan groaned as he slowly gets up, fixing his glasses and fez. He tugs Mabel away from the wall where debris was starting to fall, him a little slow moving.

Ford was with the others, his interdimensional gun in hand. He aimed at the beast, knowing what it was. The beast was immune to regular bullets, but not the energy beams from _his_ gun. His trench coat flowed dramatically behind him as he pulled the trigger, the beam hitting the flank of the beast as it goes to dodge. A softball sized hole was in its side, black blood flowing, it growling angrily as it goes to lunge at Ford.

Just as it lunged George used his crossbow and pulled its trigger. He figured the beast would be distracted as it went to attack Ford. The arrow sails through the air and it pierces the demonic lion's eye, it causing to screech in pain and black blood spilled from the wound. As it roared in pain Manly Dan runs up, axe in hand, and starts chopping away at the beast, aiming for the limbs and the mouth.

As the best roared, trying to swat with disgustingly mutilated limbs, everyone else in the group took their guns and sprayed the monster with bullets. There was so much going on that the creature couldn't defend itself, its body being bombarded with bullet holes, its inky, black blood leaving its body. With a final shudder the monster stops moving, the glow of its mane and eyes fading away to a dull gray.

Ford then gestures with a six-fingered hand to start moving. The pyramid was shaking as debris fell from about, the ground concaving. Everyone starts running toward the exit, Mabel and Stan already waiting for them, and they leave the now collapsing pyramid. Dust filled the air as they all panted outside, their breaths being shown in the cold air.

The mutilated bodies that were arranged in such a grotesque way were now collapses into piles of flesh and guts, snow slowly covering them. Everyone averted their eyes as they walked pass them, only breathing through their mouths so that they couldn't smell the decaying flesh.

Stan rubs his back as he opens the van door when they had approached, getting out a backpack. First he pops a pill, most likely a pain reliever, and he goes and gets the few papers that Dipper had wrote on about the incantation. Ford approaches him and gingerly takes the papers from his brother's hands, looking at the notes.

Ford was impressed that Dipper was able to crack the codes from Journal 2 so easily… there was side notes with translations and additions. The kid certainly brilliant for his age… Ford then finally sees the incantation and the symbol to draw on the ground. He goes through Stan's backpack and gets out a can of purple spray paint. Quickly he draws the circle onto the snowy ground, going over a few times to make sure the lines were thick.

On cue Mabel puts Wendy's tapestry in the center of the circle. She and the others that were part of the wheel gathered in a circle, hand in hand. It took a moment for Ford to memorize the incantation and to teach the few that didn't know it and they all start chanting.

The tapestry glowed a brilliant white, and within just a couple of minutes the tapestry took the form of a young woman with long, a brown lumberjack's hat on her head. She wore a green flannel shirt, blue jeans, and oversized brown boots with dried on mud on them. Her pale face was sprinkled with freckles, splashing more across her nose. She blinks open her eyes, a crystal blue, and with a hand to her head she looks around in confusion.

"Dude… what happened, man?" she moans, rubbing head.

"WENDY!" Manly Dan screams with joy and gives his daughter a giant bear hug, her eyes almost bugging out from her head. "MY LITTLE GIRL, I FINALLY HAVE YOU BACK!"

"DAD!?" Wendy gasps loudly, trying to pry herself form him. "I'M FINE! STOP TRYING TO CRUSH ME!"

Mabel gives a soft giggle, happy to see Manly Dan so happy to have his daughter back. The group watches as Wendy finally softens up with a sigh and hugs her dad back.

The Ice Bag was rescued at last.

* * *

Bipper steps back into his main throne room, the screams of agony filling his ears.

Bill leaves Dipper's body as a spirit and returns to his stoned body, the boy collapsing to his knees. Dipper begins retching, emptying his stomach onto the ground, his sweat and tears mixing in.

Dipper cried loudly, now that he was alone in his mind everything that he had done flooded back. He had sliced off a kid's head without blinking an eye. He had shoved a sword through another's abdomen and cut them in half to spill their guts and blood.

These visions were vivid in his mind, he looks to his trembling hands, seeing the non-existent blood that once decorated them. He continues crying, him being hysterical, his brown eyes wide with flowing tears, as he trembles on the ground in a fetal position.

"Oh, quit crying, Pine Tree!" Bill snaps at him, his eye black with anger. Dipper ignores it, him muttering under his breath that he killed them.

"They're dead… I killed them… I did it… They're all gone…" he kept crying. His chest felt so tight, his stomach empty but still threatening to empty its content of stomach bile. Dipper wanted nothing more than to take a gun to his head and pull the trigger, he wanted to die for what he had done, and he couldn't handle those vivid memories going through his mind.

Bill had enough. He snaps his fingers and the room fills with red flames of anger. Dipper stops crying only for a moment to see around him, him not particularly caring if he was burned alive. As much as Bill liked to see his puppet be mentally tortured, he was still pissed off and wanted to vent off his anger.

So to give him satisfaction he goes back to his puppet and holds out a hand. Without a choice Dipper grips it, knowing he was going to be possessed again. He wasn't though, his body laying still as he was passed out, now his nightmares are filling with the blood of the people he killed, begging him to stop. He couldn't wake up, he screams, they scream, and Bill laughs.

Then images flow in Dipper's head of him killing his family. Torturing Ford to the point where he did suicide, Stan being mutilated, and Mabel staring in horror until he finally snaps her neck. Dipper cries in his mind, his sanity shattering. His nightmare ends when he takes the sword he used to kill his family and those people and stab himself over and over in his heart until he collapsed.

And as all of this happens, Bill's sadistic cackle echoes throughout, enjoying the shattering of his puppet.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hello again everyone! We are slowly getting to the end of this... I am very surprised to see that a lot of people actually like this and it makes me so happy! Someone asked if there is going to be a sequel: Yes and No. Trust me, when the times comes you will see what I mean.

Stay tuned! Send me questions to my tumblr, jlandersen01! Or send me theories of what is going to happen next!

Thanks again everyone!

~Skye Hendersen~


	22. Chapter 22: Open Hearts

**Chapter 22: Open Hearts**

Mabel sits on the deck of the boat, it already cutting into the waves to get to Italy to save Robbie's tapestry, salt water spraying to her face.

Her thoughts were on Dipper, how he had looked and acted because of Bill possessing him. Although she had to admit Bill did have a good taste in fashion as Dipper had actually looked the most decent she's ever seen him in. However, she hated how his hair was arranged so that the Big Dipper was showing off, he would never do that as he really disliked showing it because of the years of being bullied. She also hated that at certain points Bill would use Dipper's voice to say certain things, words that would never be uttered by her brother.

Someone sits next to her and she glances over to see George. He was giving her a gentle look of concern, his stone gray eyes looking like the ocean's waves. "You okay?" he asks her gently, putting a hand on her leg. She blushed a deep crimson when she felt the heat from his hand and had to turn away.

"I-I'm just thinking…" she replied, hoping her voice didn't sound too shaky. Back in Gravity Falls when she had a crush on someone she just went for it, being all confident. But now… she was thinking that she actually might _like_ George.

"Is it about your brother?" George guessed, him remembering the look on Bipper's face when he talked about killing. It made him feel sick to his stomach, feeling bad that Mabel had to witness that of her brother.

Mabel nods sadly, looking as if she was going to cry. She was then suddenly hugged by George, he pulled close to him as he wrapped his arms around her. Her face was in his shoulder and she burned a deep crimson, feeling her heart race and the blood roaring in her ears.

"We will get your brother back," George promised. "We are already so close to getting everyone we need."

"But we still need _him_." Mabel points out, her voice a mumbled against his shoulder.

"And we _will_ get him." George emphasizes. Mabel nods against him and he pulls away from the embrace. He notes the blush on her face. "You look really cute when you're blushing, Mabel." He then gives a smile as he gets up. "Well, I have to go help Manly Dan with moving our supplies around… see you later!" he gives a wave and slowly walks away.

Mabel stays there for a moment, her face still in a deep blush. She then stands up and turns around to go back to her new room to share with Wendy, but she runs into Stan. Mabel jumps backwards, surprised at his sudden appearance.

Stan had a frown on his face, not looking amused at all. "So… was he bothering you or something?" he asks gruffly.

"What? No!" Mabel replies quickly, being defensive.

Stan sighs, fingers pinching the corners of his eyes. "Look, I know you're growing up… but…" he looks at her, worry in his eyes. "Don't grow up too fast, okay, Pumpkin?"

Her heart dropped seeing her grunkle looking distraught. She goes and gives Stan a hug, her snuggling against him. "I won't grow up too fast, Grunkle Stan," she tells him. "Trust me, you, Grunkle Ford, and Dipper are the number one men in my life."

Stan hugs her back, a smile on his face, his eyes almost looking like it will burst into tears. "But who is _number one_ number one?" he then jokes, getting a chuckle from Mabel. He knew it was Dipper, since he was her twin, but he enjoyed teasing her a little bit. "I gotta get back inside, Ford really doesn't know the boat all too well, so I can't really trust him with sailing it." He gives a smirk as he takes off the hat on Mabel's head and playfully ruffles her hair, he puts the hat back and with a wave walks off.

Mabel was once again alone with her thoughts. Between thinking about Dipper and the situation at hand, her thoughts constantly going back to George as well.

"You like that George guy, don't you?" someone behind her asks. Mabel turns around to see the familiar blonde hair of Pacifica Northwest, her giving a smirk.

"What!? Um… I-I…" Mabel stammers, putting the hat over her eyes.

Pacifica gives a lighthearted chuckle. "Oh, come on Mabel, it's obvious." She then gives a brilliant white smile.

"Oh, like how it's obvious you like Dipper?" Mabel retorted, feeling a mischievous grin on her face.

It was the blonde's turn to stammer. "U-uh…" her green eyes darting around.

The two then looked at each other and began laughing. Mabel was happy the two were finally friends. When Mabel first met Pacifica there was some kind of rivalry between the two, Pacifica always trying to make fun of her. But it mainly stopped when the two faced each other in mini-golf and that was then they finally pushed their differences aside, although Dipper was still skeptical of her at that point.

The two then went inside, still chatting up about George mainly. The two didn't want to talk about Dipper really, especially after the state that he was last seen in.

* * *

Stan maneuvered the boat through the Port of Gioia Tauro, which was the biggest port in Italy according to Ford.

He was careful not to hit the boat against anything, as there were many boats that gently swayed in the waves. Once he found a nice open space to anchor the boat he and Ford get out to tie it up so it wouldn't float away. Slowly the two older twins looked around the landscape, seeing how dead and empty it was.

Italy was supposed to lively, full of people and tourists. The streets were supposed to be filled with the few cars and people walking and riding bikes. However, the scenery looked grey and dull, only few papers fluttering in the wind.

According to Ford the country isn't that big and it would only take a matter of a few hours to get from one end of the country to the other. So the older twins begin looking for a big enough car so that they could fit the entire group in, but found it very difficult as European cars are usually small. Even finding a delivery truck was difficult as they were very small.

"We might only have to take about five people other than us, Stanley." Ford mutters as he kicked a wheel of one of the many tiny cars they found. "We can use that delivery truck that we saw by the port."

"The one that smells like dead, rotting fish?" Stan replies, his nose wrinkled in disgust of the memory.

"Well, we don't really have a choice now do we?" Ford lowly replies, irritated. "The thing is who do we bring?"

"Mabel," Stan automatically says. "Her, Manly Dan, Soos, Wendy, and Gideon."

"Um…" Ford says curiously, obviously thinking there was something wrong with that list. "Wouldn't it be better if we brought George instead of Gideon? Honestly George is a much better fighter."

"I figured the kid needed a break." Stan tells his brother, crossing his arms stubbornly.

Ford then laughs as he realized why Stan didn't want George around. "Oh, I get it. He and Mabel like each other and you don't want it to happen." He then laughs loudly, putting a six-fingered hand to his mouth to try to stop it from spewing out, his body shaking.

Stan growls, thinking that Ford was right as usual. "So what!?" Stan shouts. "I'm looking after Mabel! She's a precious little girl and I would kill that kid if he hurt her in any way!"

Ford puts a hand to his shoulder. "I get it, you're just being protective." He says, his laughter finally subsiding. "You're in the roll of a father figure and just want to protect her, that's natural." He gives a smirk when he noticed Stan's looked uncomfortable when mentioned of being like a father figure. "She's growing up… and if he makes her happy, shouldn't we be happy for her too?"

The old con man makes a "hrumph" sound as he turns away. He then begins walking back toward the port. "Come on, Poindexter," he calls to Ford. "Let's go with your plan and get the group together to get in that rotting truck."

Once the two made it make to the boat they called the group together, which included George, and they led them to the delivery truck. They had brought a few blankets with them as the air was cold and the truck would feel like ice if they just sat in it. Everyone piles in and Ford begins driving, looking for any sign of a large pyramid.

They drove along the coast of Italy, where they can see all the scenery around them. Stan kept his eyes out the window, looking for any sign of the pyramid. It seemed they were driving for hours until they finally see a triangular silhouette in the distance. When Stan points it out Ford floors on the gas, eager to get there.

However, the ore they drove it seemed like they were never getting closer to it. Frustrated, Ford hits the breaks, putting a hand to his chin. He glares in front of him, trying to think of what possibly was going on.

"How the hell are we not getting closer?" Stan demands, himself frustrated, both hands gripping his light gray hair.

"It's an illusion…" Ford says simply, edge in his voice. "The real one is here in Italy somewhere…" he remembered going to that pyramid to place the tapestry there while he was Bill's puppet… but where was it now? It was making Ford angry, it seemed his memories were beginning to become fuzzy on the subject.

Ford then face palmed himself. "Of course!" He shouts, his voice full of anger. "How can I be so stupid and have forgotten!?"

Stan looks to him, his brown eyes wide. "What, Sixer? Did you figure it out?" he asks timidly.

"The damn pyramid _isn't_ a pyramid!" Ford shouts again, Stan giving him a look of confusion. "It's in a tomb underground…! In the largest graveyard in Italy, the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno…" he gives himself another face palm as a vague memory of it.

"Come again?" Stan sighs. "A cemetery?"

Ford nods. "Bill did this illusion for show…" he murmurs as he gets out a map. He then points to where the cemetery. "Luckily for us it's only an hour drive from here…"

"Then step on it!" Stan shouts as Ford floors on the gas, doing a full U-turn. "Oh… okay then." Ford drives at full speed, heading towards the cemetery. He was clearly angry at himself for not realizing sooner, so Stan just stayed quiet.

Soon they drive up to a large cemetery, beautifully decorated with many monuments and statues. In the middle of the large cemetery was a tip of a black triangle, signaling that it was the tip of tomb. Ford parks the car and everyone gets out of the truck, a sigh of relief escaping them as they were able to finally stretch their legs.

"So… how do we get in?" Mabel asks, not seeing any sign of entry. "Do we say some magic word or something?" she starts to gather a mental list of every magical word she knew.

Ford shakes his head as he adjusts his cracked glasses. "No… we actually have to crawl through the top to the bottom…" he explains. He then looks at his great niece. "And that's where you come in, Mabel… you got your grappling hook."

"You can't expect her to go down by herself!" Stan argues. "What if there is some monster or-"

Ford interrupts, "I wasn't suggesting in the slightest that she goes by herself!" he looks to his twin with irritation. "What I'm saying is that a pair to use the grappling hook to get in and out as inconspicuous as possible. One grabs while the other defends when necessary."

Stan rolls his eyes, crossing his arms. Mabel gets out her grappling hook and examines it, thinking how she always held her and Dipper's weight together when they were twelve back in Gravity Falls.

"I can go with her," George volunteers, him raising a hand.

Stan narrows his eyes as Ford nods in agreement. "Alright, that's a good plan." Ford agrees as Stan grumbles under his breath "No it's not."

Ford leads both Mabel and George to the tip of the pyramid. He finds the mechanism that opens up a small a hatch and revealing a gaping black hole. He had taken Mabel's grappling hook and hooked it in a certain position where it shouldn't come undone. After he did that he gave the handle to George, stating that he was the stronger of the two to bare the weight.

George and Mabel get to the edge of the chasm, feet dangling. The young man had an arm wrapped around her waist with her arms around his torso and together they went over the edge, them being lowered at a decent pace. Surrounding them was nothing but darkness, Mabel's heart pounding as she heard small trickles of something dripping and the sound of the mechanism of the grappling hook lowering them.

Soon the chasm opens up, lit up with faint blue flames, revealing an open room just like in the other pyramids. Except it was filled with nothing but the living dead. Living corpses clawed around them, desperately trying to find any source of nutrients. Mabel had a dark feeling that these zombies were nothing like the ones that were in Gravity Falls, no amount of bad singing would get rid of these. In the center of the room on a pedestal was Robbie's tapestry, him with a distressed expression his face. The zombies were ever so slowly crawling around, moans escaping them.

"Ford didn't mention this…" George grumbled, him stopping the process of lowering them. He looks around, trying to get a rough number on how many there could possibly be.

"He probably thought it was hanging like the others…" Mabel points out, defending her grunkle. "Bill probably rearranged this to make it more difficult…"

George slowly nods as he proceeds to lower them. "Alright, you have a gun right, Mabel?" he asks her. She nods in response. "We may have to fight our way through…" he then says.

Their feet then touch the ground, a soft click against the obsidian floor. Suddenly the zombies' heads turn in their direction, their dim yellow eyes on them. They began shuffling towards them at a surprisingly fast rate, them seeing a new meal.

"Shit… this reminds me of a video game…" George mutters as he releases his hand from the grapping hook, it hanging there, and he gets his crossbow that was strapped to his back. "Get ready to move, Mabel." He tells her.

She gets her gun out from the holster on her right side. A zombie made a grab for her but with a swift move she aims for its chest and open fires, it staggering. George then shoots an arrow and it pierces its head, it exploding with clotted, brown blood, the body collapsing on the ground as other zombies begin tripping over it.

"You gotta aim for the head, Mabel." He explains. "Like I said… this reminds me of a video game…"

Mabel nods as she makes a run for Robbie's tapestry, George behind her. She dodges as many zombie as she could, some grabbing her oversized sleeves with thick, yellow nails. Mabel would use the weight of the pistol to hit them in the head to get them off of her, avoiding their snapping jaws.

The two finally make it to Robbie's tapestry, his sweatshirt bearing the stitched heart symbol. Mabel grabs it, folding it over her arm, and as she turns around she sees that they are surrounded. George shoots at the zombies, aiming for their heads as best as he could, but it seemed like the zombies were replenishing.

"Mabel, when I give the word you need to run straight for the grappling hook." George instructs.

"Okay," Mabel agrees. "What's the word?"

"What?"

"The word! You know, so I can run?"

"RUN!"

"Is that the word or do I actually-"

George then grabs her hand and starts running, almost dragging her behind him. He was using his weight and momentum to knock down zombies in front of him, causing more to fall around like a domino effect. As the approached the grappling hook that still hung there, George moves Mabel protectively more close to him as he stops to catch his breath. They had a clear shot of the grappling hook.

"Okay, run Mabel!" George orders as he covers her. She does as she was told and when she makes it to the hook, she looks back to see George trying to get away from a hold of a zombie. He screamed as one grabbed his side, trying to take a chunk of flesh from his neck as it pried at his flesh.

Without thinking Mabel runs back, gun in her free hand. She knocks the zombie away that was trying to bite George, but as she did one grabbed her from behind and she felt teeth break into the bare skin of her arm when the sweater sleeve rolled up. A sharp and intense pain radiates through her body, almost making her paralyzed with pain and fear.

She screams in pain, a bright scarlet streaming from the wound as she yanked, causing the wound to get bigger and more blood flowing. George heard her cry of pain and pulled her more towards him, to shield her as a zombie bites his shoulder. He holds back a scream with clenched teeth as he then makes a sudden run for the grappling hook, Mabel in tow, both leaving a trail of blood behind them. The blood seemed to distract the zombies, slowing them down as they wanted a taste.

George grabs the grappling hook, keeping a tight grip on Mabel's waist, his shirt getting soaked of his and her blood as he activates the mechanism to go up. He cursed loudly when it was going super slow, a stray zombie that ignored the blood grabbing his leg. George gives the undead monster a swift kick to the head, the neck snapping back with a loud crack.

Mabel's heart was beating loud and fast, her feeling that every time her heart pounded her life's blood was leaving her. Her eyes felt heavy and she loosened whatever grip she had on George, causing him to gasp as he clutched onto her tighter, baring a dead weight.

George sees the opening of the pyramid, and then sees Stan's head in the opening. As George and Mabel got closer to the opening, two sets of hands reached down to hoist them up. Ford and Stab grip both of them and pulls them over the edge of the opening, the two old men choking back a yelp seeing the kids' condition.

"Mabel!" Stan cried out, noting her arm bleeding heavily. He looks over, seeing George heavily wounded in the shoulder, the boy now gripping it, blood going between his fingers.

Ford then gives Mabel a quick glance over, a look of relief on his face. "Thank God, her brachial artery wasn't hit… it's just a deep wound." He then took off his trench coat, ripping the fabric into many strips. He then wraps the fabric around Mabel's arm to suppress the bleeding and then goes onto George to wrap around his shoulder to stop his bleeding. "We need to get medical supplies immediately, they actually might need stitches." He curses under his breath, regretting not having Melody around who knew first aid.

"What even happened!?" Stan demanded, glaring at George.

"Fricken zombies!" George gasps in pain. "They were surrounding the tapestry on the floor of the damn place!" he then glared at Ford. "You didn't mention that shit!" he then snaps.

Ford blinks in surprise, his brown eyes wide with confusion. "Zombies? They were never any before…" he whispers, his hand going to his head. "Or were they…?" he then adds, a look of horrified confusion crossing his features. He tries to think about when he was Bill's puppet, trying to remember if those zombies were people that Bill had made him kill. He couldn't remember, and that numbed him to his very core.

Wendy and Manly Dan then help get Mabel and George into the back of the truck, Wendy taking Robbie's tapestry from Mabel so it wouldn't tangle, Soos going to the front so he could drive. In the back of the truck both the older twins were keeping their hands on the kids makeshift bandages, trying to pressure on them to stop the bleeding as best they could. The truck moves, the bumps from the road causes the two kids to hiss in pain.

In about ten minutes the truck stops. Manly Dan opens the back doors, seeing that they were in front of a hospital. He and Wendy help Ford and Stan get the kids out of the truck safely, Mabel looking ready about to pass out.

Ford was panicking. For once he wished one of his twelve PhD's actually consisted in something medical, he knew basic first aid and anatomy, but he had no knowledge on how to help. Stan puts a reassuring hand to the old scientist's shoulder.

"I can actually help," he says with a small, sad smile. "It's really a good thing that Dipper made Mabel and I read a bunch of medical textbooks." He then adds with a slight dark chuckle, "Although I was bored almost to tears."

Ford looks at Stan with shocked eyes. Stanley Pines actually fully read a textbook? Ford almost couldn't believe it, but the look Stan gave was enough to convince him it was true.

Mabel and George were put on surprisingly clean gurneys, both Wendy and Manly Dan wheeling them around until they see the sign for the ER that Ford points out. The kids were wheeled in and with Wendy's help Stan got the supplies he would need to help them.

"Wendy, you know first aid, right?" Stan asks, recalling that she was a lifeguard for a little bit.

` "Yeah I do, Mr. Pines." The red-head responds.

"Then you're helping me." Stan orders, the girl giving a firm nod adjusting her lumberjack hat on her head and rolling up her sleeves.

As they went to work, Ford stood there with a blank look on his face. The sight of all the blood was almost sickening to him. Over the years of his life he has seen so much blood, more so in the past year and a half from being Bill's puppet. At some point Ford blacks out, hearing someone – maybe Soos? - calling his name.

* * *

Mabel blinks open her eyes, feeling a dull ache in her arm.

She sits up, seeing that she was on stiff bed, the blue and white pine tree hat on the nightstand next to it. Looking over to her left she sees that George was snoring in his own bed, seeing his shoulder all bandaged up. As her arm aches, she looks to see thick bandages on it. Her fingers gingerly touches over it, feeling thick and uneven stitches underneath. She gives a small smile know that Grunkle Stan had done it, him knowing some of the medical stuff that Dipper forced them to read.

With a groan, Mabel stands up from the bed, her wobbling. She walks over to George, seeing his dark blonde hair sprawled on the pillow. A pang of guilt goes through her, knowing that if she hadn't questioned him earlier the probably wouldn't have gotten hurt.

George groans as he blinks open his eyes, them being their usual stony gray. Mabel jumps up, being caught starting at him.

"S-sorry!" she stammered, her with her hands up. "I-I just woke up m-myself!" she says quickly. "I didn't mean to stare!" her face was a deep crimson.

The boy couldn't help but laugh, ignoring the pain on his shoulder. He honestly thought the girl looked adorable blushing, and the way she was flustering about an apology made him smile. He remembered the first time he saw her, it was at the hospital in New York where Bud's group met up with the Pines. He was in the cafeteria when Mabel had entered with her injured brother, her brown eyes wide and round with joy, and he couldn't help but think her smile was radiant.

"Why are you laughing at me!?" Mabel demands, her voice shaking. At that point George sat up in his bed, a hand to his chest as he still laughed.

"You're really cute, you know that?" George points out.

Mabel makes an odd sound, like she choked. "HEH?" she screeched loudly, her face feeling as if it was on fire.

George then takes Mabel's hand and pulls her down so she was forced to sit on the edge of his hospital bed. Without hesitating he goes and puts his lips on hers, Mabel's warm brown eyes widening in shock. He had _kissed_ her… her heart thumps loudly in her chest.

And for that one moment she forgot about everything, and just thought of her newly opened heart.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Hello! I am very sorry for the lack of an update yesterday, I actually worked at my job all day and then had to study for an exam I had to do today. To make up for it I will post another chapter later, although it may be shorter.

Sorry again, and thanks for reading!

~Skye Hendersen~


	23. Chapter 23: Blood Stained Hands

**Chapter 23: Blood Stained Hands**

Dipper wakes up with a gasp, feeling like he had been drowning in an ocean of blood, his brown eyes wide with fear and anxiety.

He was laying in some sort of cot, him wearing his white dress shirt, dress pants, and socks. A jolt runs through him, he sits up and looks around in a small room. Tears stung his eyes as he glances at his hands, thinking of the things Bill has made him do in such a short time. Dipper moves his knees to his chest and wraps his arms around them, slowly rocking himself back and forth.

 _All that blood… they're all dead… I killed them…_

These thoughts repeated in his mind over and over, each time it sounded more desperate and anguished. Slowly his mind kept repeating of the recent events. He had saw his family… he almost killed Wendy within her tapestry… The torture within his mind of Bill making him kill his family and even himself.

After his mind torture Bill had taken over Dipper's body once again and had opened a portal to room filled with cells. Some of the cells contained people Dipper recognized from Gravity Falls such as Mayor Tyler, Pacifica's parents, Lazy Susan, and even Toby Determined. Dipper had heard the gasps from the people, noting how it was him instead of Ford being a puppet.

And Bipper had given a most sadistic smile. _"So how do you all like my new puppet?"_ he had cheerfully said. While no one responded, the smile on Bipper's face had faltered. _"You know… that's just rude… I may just have to have Pine Tree here rip you all apart…"_

 _No…! NO!_ Dipper had screamed in his mind. He didn't want to hurt them, he didn't want to hurt anyone!

Bill had ignored his cry and then had looked around the cells debating who to start with. He had finally snapped his fingers and Preston Northwest appeared in front him.

 _"_ _Oh, the Llama's father… that should be fun to mutilate today."_ Bipper had then cackled. Preston had given a look of horror when Bipper summons a sword in his hand. _"Oh! Oh hey, Northwest, did you know your daughter has a huge crush on my puppet here?"_ In a way it was teasing. _"That's funny… my puppet likes her too… well, you're not going to care anymore anyway, you're going to have your head sliced off!"_ Bipper then had tilted his head to the side, brown hair falling to fully reveal the Big Dipper on his forehead. With an insane smile he had swung the sword, the head of Preston Northwest cleanly falling off as the body collapses to its knees and a fountain of blood spewing.

Bipper had given a great cackle of insane laughter as Mrs. Northwest had screeched in horror. He had then snaps his fingers and the woman bursts into flames, her screaming as she was slowly being burned alive, her skin turning black and splitting open.

Bill had then left Dipper's body, his spirit traveling back to his stoned body as Dipper's brown eyes widened with horror. The boy had looked to the two people he just killed in front of him, him collapsing to his knees, his hand dropping the sword and his hands resting on the ground, becoming a stained red.

Dipper then shakes his head, not wanting to remember that recent event. He looks at his now clean hands, but his eyes were showing him the blood stains. Just thinking about blood was making his stomach turn.

How could he ever face anyone again even if he was freed? Dipper could never hold Mabel's hand again, fear of the blood stains transferring to her. After what he just did to Pacifica's parents, how could he face her or even start a relationship with her? Although Stan and Ford had their share of a tough life, Dipper feels he could never face them again because of his actions.

 _I'm a monster…_

Somewhere in the back of his mind a small voice was telling him it wasn't his fault, for some reason it sounded a lot like Mabel… Deep down he knows it wasn't his fault, he was being controlled. But _his_ hands is what swung the sword, _his_ hands that gripped around a head snapped the person's neck, and it was _his_ hands is what caused an ocean of blood to now suffocate him in his nightmares.

Slowly, Dipper gets up, seeing that he was in a small room. A small table was in the corner, a plate with an apple and a glass of water sitting on it. Narrowing his eyes Dipper picks up the apple and throws it against the wall, the fruit splattering. He knocks the water off the table, a puddle soaking his socks. When he picks up the plate he notices it was ceramic and with a swift motion he throws it against the stone floor, the plate shattering.

Dipper spots a wickedly sharp shard and picks it up, the thin edges already cutting into his fingers. He puts the tip to his neck, pressing against his flesh, blood gently dribbling down his hand to get to the edge of his sleeve, it turning into a scarlet.

 _"_ _I don't think so, Pine Tree!"_ Bill's shrill voice filled the room. Dipper drops the shard, it clattering to the ground, the cut on his neck stinging. The triangular demon then appears in front of him, a cane in hand. "I can't have you doing that, that'll ruin all the fun!" he then shouts.

"I don't care…" Dipper replies sullenly, his voice was cracking.

Bill rolled his eye. "I hate to break it to you kid, but even if you do kill yourself I'll just bring you back." He mentally smiles when he sees Pine Tree's face pale into a deathly white. "You think your Great Uncle Stanford hadn't done it? I swear he's probably killed himself the way you just tried a few times… and I just brought him back and punished him for what he tried to do."

Dipper whispers, "You… can't bring back the dead…"

"Oh yes I can, I'm a demon!" Bill insists. "And..." his eye turns black, his body a burning red. _"If you ever do that again… there will be a price to pay, Pine Tree."_

Without a choice Dipper nods his head. Bill then snaps his fingers and a new set of clothes was set in front of Dipper. It was the same exact outfit, except now it added white satin gloves.

 _Now the blood stains will really stand out…_

Once the boy had changed his clothes, his bloodied ones evaporating to wherever the hell they go. He stands there as he fixes his long coat, making sure the tails weren't tangled. The gloves slid onto his hands perfectly, it smooth against his skin.

The look on Dipper's face was the look of a damaged man. His eyes were half closed and glossy looking, thick bags underneath them, the pinkness of his nose was even duller than before, and his cheeks looked more hallow. The clothes were a little loose on him, showing that he was losing weight from refusing to eat and throwing up after killing masses of people.

No matter what he did, no matter how much he could wash himself, his hands are forever stained a blood red in his mind. His mental image of himself was now a blood stained version of himself, the ground soaking from his steps.

Dipper looks at his now gloved hand one last time, his mind showing blood soaking the glove from the palm to the edges.

* * *

He stood in a grove, a bunch of fallen bodies around him, a sword in his hand with the edges dripping with blood.

Bipper had a twisted smile on his face, blood splatters decorating his pale skin. He cackles loudly as he snaps his fingers, the bodies slowly getting back up, stumbling. Bipper had a plan to put them in the tomb-pyramid that held the Stitched Heart's tapestry, an army of the undead to protect his property.

 _"_ _And now… we wait for the fun…"_

* * *

Bipper had been at the dark edges of the tomb when he saw Shooting Star and some other person lowering themselves down with her grappling hook.

The army of the undead perked up when they saw their potential new meal, leaving Bipper with an evil grin. He watched patiently as he saw them being attacked, but then narrowed his eyes angrily when they started fighting the monsters. He clenched his hands tightly, trying to set them aflame like he normally would so he wouldn't get caught.

But once he heard the sound Shooting Star scream in pain it took all he had not to cackle joyously. Even that other kid got hurt too. Bipper's eyes glow a brilliant gold, he couldn't wait for them to overrun and eaten alive.

That is until that boy grabs Shooting Star and makes a run for the grappling hook.

Bipper's eyes narrow dangerously. With angry flick of his wrist and snapping his fingers the remaining zombies fell to the ground, their rotting flesh disintegrating into mushed piles on the stone floor. The demon-possessed boy stands there, his arms shaking with rage. Red flames surround him as it incinerates the mess around him.

Inside his mind Dipper had watched his sister be attacked. He wanted to help her, he willed it with all his being, but he couldn't… Bill had too much control. Dipper was thankful for the boy that was with Mabel, he had saved her life. But now he can tell Bill was angry, which means he was going to make Dipper do something horrible.

Bipper opens a portal with a snap of his fingers and enters, the other side showing an RV and many small cars. People were gathered around and gasped when they recognized that is Dipper, which meant they knew Bill was around because of their deal.

 _"_ _Hello, all"_ Bipper greets, giving a low bow.

 _"_ _How about we go to Gravity Falls for a little fun?"_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** As promised a short chapter!

~Skye Hendersen~


	24. Chapter 24: The Nightmare

**Chapter 24: The Nightmare**

Mabel was still on the edge of the bed with George, her in his embrace.

George pulls away from her, a slight blush on his face. Hers on the other hand was a deep crimson, and once he had pulled away from her she had broken out into a huge grin. She puts a stray brown hair behind her ear, a small giggle escaping her. That was her first major kiss since Mermando back at the community pool in Gravity Falls.

"I'm sorry…" George then says, pushing himself away. "W-was that okay? Did I overstep my boundaries?" this was the first time Mabel seen George flustered.

She laughs at his expression. "You're fine." She assures him, putting her hand on top of his on the bed. "It was very nice…" she tells him, her brown eyes looking away slightly.

He does a sigh of relief. He gives her another smile, making her heart race. She then hugs him, George putting his arms around her.

"I'm sorry though…" Mabel says. "It's my fault you got hurt… If I just would've not been my usual goofy self you wouldn't be here right now…"

Sometimes Mabel hates her personality. She was the more outgoing twin, always wanting to do stuff and dragging Dipper with her wherever she went. With her knowledge in crafts she always had her own style, and with her natural silliness she was easy to talk to and befriend. But sometimes she feels that maybe she's too weird all the time, some people saying she could never be serious. But with realization she knows that her personality is what makes her Mabel, and once she accepted that fact about herself she was a lot happier and it was easier to deal with people who thought of her as weird.

Her _whole_ family was weird. Ford with his six fingered hands, Stan with his weird little songs he loved to sing when doing stuff, and even Dipper with his birthmark. But that's what made her family _her family_. She loved all those things about them, just like how they love her for her.

"It's not your fault," George tells her, a look of concern in his stony gray eyes.

"I'm always so weird and silly…" she then mutters. "If I had been more serious-"

Firmly, George tells her, "It's _not_ your fault. You being your silly self is what I definitely like about you, how even in the darkest of situations you seem to be full of energy and light."

The door then opens behind them, Mabel jumping up from the bed and stepping a few feet away. Ford came through the door, his face looking pale, with Stan behind him, followed by Wendy. When Stan saw Mabel awake and standing up he runs to her and pulls her in for a tight hug.

"Ooof!" grumbled Mabel, her being crushed by her grunkle's embrace.

"You're okay!" Stan cried out happily, his eyes wet. "I thought I didn't do a good job…" he pulls out of the embrace, giving a glance over to his niece to make sure she was really okay.

Mabel then looks at her bandaged arm. She traces the bump underneath the bandages that was the stitches. She gives Stan a big smile as she says to him, "Well, we do need to work on your sewing skills a little more."

Stan laughs, glad that Mabel was able to find some humor in the situation. Ford walks over and gives a Mabel a hug as well, he honestly looked like he was going to faint.

"Grunkle Ford?" Mabel says worriedly. "Are you okay?"

Stan gives a small chuckle, "He's just a little queasy from all the blood." Ford gives his younger twin an agitated look. "He fainted when Wendy and I were helping you and George."

"Thank you, Stanley, for oh so telling everyone I fainted." Ford interjects, his voice filled with sarcasm. "After all I've been through blood is not my cup of tea." That made Stan glance away, realizing what he said about blood.

George then gets out of his hospital bed, his shoulder heavily bandaged. He also had a bump underneath, another one of Stan's handiwork in stitching. The young man looked at Ford, still weary of the man because he literally sent his niece to an undead death trap.

"Mabel… I'm so sorry for what happened…" Ford tells his niece as he hugs her again. "I thought it was hanging above the throne like everywhere else… I didn't remember the trap… or if there was one…." He groans as he puts a hand to his head, eyes closed, his face paling more as a sheen of sweat breaks through on his forehead.

Mabel gasps as she sees her grunkle stumble. "No! It's not your fault, Grunkle Ford!" she tells him. "Bill must've rearranged it somehow… don't push yourself!" What was making Ford so ill?

Ford puts up a six-fingered hand. "I-I'll be alright… I just need to sleep a little more is all…" he then stands up fully and says to Stan, "You can drive back to the boat, right?" Stan nods. "Alright, and if you two are alright enough to move we can start heading back to the boat with Robbie's tapestry, then we can all head back to the states." He then stumbles out of the doorway, muttering something about finding some headache medicine and water.

Mabel goes and gets Dipper's hat and places it gingerly on her head. It was starting to become more familiar to her. She started considering getting her own hat with a shooting star on it after she gives Dipper his pine tree hat back. The thought made her smile, it'd be the first time the twins would be similar clothes since they were very little and Halloween.

The two young teenagers then followed Stan to the main lobby of the hospital, Wendy behind with a couple of bags filled with medical supplies they found. Manly Dan and Soos were finding other blankets and pillows to make the long truck ride more comfortable.

"Oh, hey, Mabel!" Soos waves to her from a distance. "You okay, lil' dude?" she nods at him. "Ah! That's great, dude! And hey, guess what I found!" he holds up a few little books with Japanese writing on it. "I found manga, dude! They're actually in English too! Whoever was here vacationing in Italy must've brought them!"

"Awesome, Soos!" Mabel screeched with excitement. She actually enjoyed reading those with him back at the Shack in Gravity Falls and watching anime with him. "We totally gotta read them when we are back on the boat!"

"Yeah, dude!" Soos agrees, adjusting his hat on his head.

The two laughed as Ford comes from around the corner, chugging down a bottled water. He looked a little better, but his eyes kept darting around as if he was worried something will pop out. He then gestures to everyone to get ready to leave, and they all walked out to the truck.

Stan and Wendy were arranging blankets and pillows in the back of the truck to make sure people were comfy. That and it was to cover the blood stains left by Mabel and George. Wendy managed to find hand-warmer packets and found one use heating packs, hopefully it would keep people warm.

Snow began to fall heavily as people were loading up inside the back of the truck. Stan was in the driver's seat with a blanket on his lap, heavy gloves on his hands. Ford sat in the passenger seat, him wrapped in blankets with his glasses askew as he had fallen asleep instantaneously. Stan steps on the gas, the truck chugging along at a sluggish pace because of the accumulating snow in the roads.

Ford barely ever sleeps anymore unless absolutely necessary, he hated the nightmares that flooded his mind. His nightmares were always filled with blood, his hands stained a permanent rust color. People around were always crying and begging him to stop, but he had no control over his own body because of Bill.

In this nightmare Ford was walking down a long winding path, leading to the ocean that bordered Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. The swings on the swing set that he and Stanley always hung out on as children gently swayed in the wind. Ford looks around, confused. Why was he here in his mindscape?

That's when he appeared. It wasn't Bill, but Dipper with wide, tearful brown eyes. The young man looked so pained and sick, his mouth twisted in distress as tears rolled down his cheeks. His brown hair was tussled in such a way that his birthmark shown fully.

"Help…" he kept saying over and over. "Please help me…"

"Dipper!" Ford screams trying to run forward, an arm outstretched, but his legs wouldn't move.

"Why aren't you helping me, Great Uncle Ford?" Dipper whines in despair. "Why did you cause this all to happen?"

Ford's eyes widened when those words cut through him. It _was_ his fault. He made the original deal with Bill and he built the portal. The look on Dipper's face was just so broken, it wasn't the face of the brilliant young boy he met in Gravity Falls, but of someone who wanted nothing more than to die.

"Dipper!" Ford calls out to him. "We will save you! I promise! We just need to get back to Gravity Falls with everyone!"

That's when Dipper's eyes glowed a brilliant gold, causing Ford to almost collapse to the ground. A shrill cackle escapes the young man, a cackle Ford knew all too well. The now possessed boy slowly walks up to him, a sword now shining in his hand, him with a twisted smile.

"Yeah right, Great Uncle Ford," the voice coming out of his mouth was Dipper's, but it sounded much more dark and twisted. "You say that now, but will you actually do it?" he gives another laugh as he raises the sword. "What are you going to do when Pine Tree actually goes to do this to you or your damn precious family?"

Ford's eyes widened as the sword was swung, him feeling the blade cut into the soft flesh of his neck. He screams loudly, feeling hot blood pouring out onto him. A cackle echoes throughout the mindscape and Ford screamed and screamed, feeling his life fade away.

"STANFORD!" a sudden scream breaks through to Ford and he feels a violent shake on his shoulder. The old scientist opens his eyes, seeing that he was in the now stopped truck. "STANFORD!" the scream echoes in his ears again. Ford turns and sees Stanley looking at him with a frightened look in his eyes.

"St-Stanley?" Ford whispers hoarsely, his hand to his head. His heart was pounding in his chest, making it feel hard to breathe. He then puts a hand to his neck underneath the turtleneck of the sweater Mabel had made for him. All that was there was a thick scar fro when he tried to kill himself, there was no sign of blood or any wounds.

"Are you okay, Stanford?" Stan asks his brother gently. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"It's not important." Ford shrugs it off. He notices that they were back at the port, snow was falling pretty heavily. "We need to get Robbie back to normal before going on the boat." He then gets out of the truck, groaning as he felt some joints pop on him. _Damn getting old…_

Stan gets out as well and opens the truck doors, seeing everyone looking a little dazed, most likely falling asleep while on the drive. They get out of the truck, them all stretching. Mabel and George got out carefully when they were told there was ice so they couldn't slip and reopen their wounds.

Ford goes back on the boat, telling everyone they had returned, and got a spray paint can. As he walks off the boat McGucket, Gideon, and Pacifica following close behind. Ford then draws the circle and symbols in the snow, going over the lines multiple times so they were nice and thick. The people of the wheel gathered in a circle, Manly Dan placing Robbie's tapestry in the center, and incantation commenced.

Robbie's tapestry glowed a brilliant white and soon he was a tall, lanky teenager with pale skin and jet black hair. He wore a hoodie with the stitched heart symbol on the front, tight skinny jeans with black converse, and on his hands was black fingerless gloves. Robbie looks around, seeing the circle around him.

"Uh… can someone explain to me what the heck just happened…?" Robbie asks, his hand to his head.

"Dude, you're back!" Wendy shouts happily, giving her ex-boyfriend a giant bear hug. Even though they tried dating and it didn't work out, she was glad they were still good friends.

The reunion was cut short when Ford barks out the order about getting on the boat so they can get moving. Everyone followed his orders, Wendy and Soos explaining to Robbie what was going on.

"So wait… where is the little nerd twerp?" Robbie asks, referring to Dipper. "Isn't he part of the wheel thingy too?" he looks around, not seeing him anywhere.

Mabel heard that as she stopped suddenly on the deck. She turns and looks over to Robbie, who looked at the hat on her head. He looked uncomfortable, his gaze averting hers.

"Dipper… made a deal with Bill." Mabel says emotionlessly. "But… we are going to get him back and stop Bill."

They all get on the boat, Melody greeting them with cans of hot soup. Everyone was given one and a spoon, some trading because they didn't like their choice. Mabel was given tomato soup, which she wasn't very fond of but ate it nonetheless as she was starving. Soos told Melody what had happened and once she found out about the injuries she made sure to give Mabel and George another glance over, saying that she was impressed with Stan's handiwork.

Mabel's heart pounds in her chest. They finally had everyone needed for the wheel… well, except for Dipper. The spoon she was using clangs to the floor, she looked down with a sad expression on her face. She mumbled something to Pacifica and walked away toward the room she shared with Wendy. She gets in her small bunk and lays her head on the pillow.

 _But can we even rescue him…?_

* * *

It had been three days since they started sailing away from Europe, Stan sailing the boat at a decent pace.

The waters were calm, no sign of a storm or even demonic monsters, which brought relief to everyone. Ford was holed up in the small engine room, books and papers in hand, chewing on a pen absently. Over and over there were doodles of triangles but was fiercely crossed out. He was trying to think of a plan to save Dipper… but Bill knows they need him, so he isn't going to just leave Dipper's body.

Ford slams his head into the book in his lap. There just _had_ to be a way to repress Bill only for a minute or so to do the wheel. Then Ford snaps his head up, remembering what Bipper had said back in Greenland.

 _He pissed me off trying to resist!_

Ford's eyes lit up as he jots down the theory on a blank piece of paper. Dipper must've used his willpower to suppress Bill just for a moment… enough for Bill to notice and to get mad at him. If Dipper can resist Bill just long enough to be part of the wheel, then they had a shot of defeating Bill Cipher for good.

 _But…_ Ford thinks sadly to himself. _Does Dipper even have the willpower anymore?_

The door to the room creaks open and Mabel pops her in head in. "Grunkle Ford?" she calls out softly.

"Yes, Mabel?" Ford responds, just as softly, him putting his notes to the side.

"What are you doing in here?" she asks him.

"Thinking…" he tells her. "I think I have a theory about helping Dipper." The young girl's eyes lit up. "Bill said Dipper tried to resist, which means it was very noticeable… if Dipper could resist for a about two to three minutes-"

"Then we can do the wheel and defeat Bill!" Mabel finishes for him, putting it together fairly quickly. She had her hands in fists to her chest, a triumphant smile on her face.

Ford nods as he gets his stuff and stands up from his sitting position on the cold ground. He puts a free hand on Mabel's shoulder and leads her out, her still being excited about the news.

"Oh, and Grunkle Stan says that since the weather had been decent and there hadn't been any… accidents-" Mabel gives a sheepish smile, knowing the last accident was her jumping overboard for the hat. "- we should be arriving to Port Houston by tomorrow afternoon." Her grunkle gives a smile and takes off the hat to give her hair an affectionate ruffle.

"Thanks for telling me, Mabel." He tells her as he puts the hat back on. "I'll go talk to Stanley now about my theory."

As he walks to where Stan was sailing the boat his mind kept drifting to his nightmares. He has had the same nightmare over and over, of Dipper begging for help and then killing him. Each time Dipper looked more and more distraught, and was losing significant weight. The boy looked so ill, like he could die at any moment. Ford knew Bill was sending these images to his sleeping form, showing Ford just how broken Dipper was becoming.

But in the most recent nightmare Dipper said only one thing before putting the sword to Ford's neck: When you see me, kill me.

Dipper was now begging to be killed. He didn't want to be saved anymore, he just wanted to die. And that made Ford furious, making him shake with anger. That wasn't the Dipper he knew, the Dipper he knew was always full of wonder and wanted to explore. The kid was now just a mere shadow of his former self.

 _You bastard, Cipher… you will pay for what you did to my family._

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** OH WE ARE GETTING CLOSE TO THE END! Thank you for reading!

~Skye Hendersen~


	25. Chapter 25: To Gravity Falls

**Chapter 25: To Gravity Falls**

Stan maneuvers the boat in the port to make sure they didn't hit anything, and once everything was in place he anchors it and ties it up to the dock.

Everyone seemed to be happy to be back in the states, Wendy and Robbie especially since it has been awhile for them. The group left the boat with all their items in hand, all wearing amazing sweaters courtesy of Mabel. Draped over Ford's arm was the flag that he and Mabel had designed together.

Soos and Gideon went off with McGucket to find a working van or two, since they had so many people. They brought a radio and their weapons to make sure they were defended and that they could call for help. In just an hour they radioed Stan and Ford to say they found a bus and that Soos was just making sure it was running well before they bring it over.

The bus pulls up within twenty minutes, Mabel giving a cheer. Pacifica looked horrified at the sight of the big yellow school bus. This made Mabel laugh at her and tell her to just think of it as an ugly limo. Pacifica laughs and agrees to, mainly thankful that they wouldn't be walking back to where they had set up camp and left the group.

Soos drives the bus once they were piled on, Stan and Ford sitting in the seats in the very front to help navigate. George and Mabel sat in the back, her head leaning on his shoulder. Everyone else was pretty spread out, Wendy and Robbie talking about some band they enjoy together.

Once they pulled up to the camp however, it caused everyone to look silently in horror.

The camp was completely empty, not a soul to be seen. Fires were burned out, only charred wood remaining. Some car doors were open wide, blankets and other items spilling out, and other cars were charred black as if they were set on fire. The only sign of movement was on the ground in blue flames… a paper written in the blue fire as if it was ink.

The note was written with elegant handwriting, the letters looping at the end. It read in big letters: Come to Gravity Falls.

"Bill _wants_ us to go to Gravity Falls?" Stan questions as he read the note over Ford's shoulder once everyone was off the bus. "Why?"

"Probably to kill us." Ford replies nonchalantly as he crumbles the note, ignoring the fire, and threw it to the side.

"Can we even actually beat him, Sixer?" whispered Stan, despair creeping in his voice.

"I honestly have no idea, Stanley…" Ford hangs his head. "But… we have to try to fight him. Even if we die, we die fighting."

"Sounds like a good plan…" Stan says with half closed eyes. "Ya know, except for the dying part. We should try to avoid that."

Ford laughs darkly. "Agreed."

They had to get to Gravity Falls as soon as they can. They gathered as much supplies as possible, a lot of meat from recent hunting, and canned goods that they had left behind for the group. It was decided that Stan, Ford, Mabel, Pacifica, and Wendy were to be in the RV traveling back to Gravity Falls and everyone else on the bus with extra supplies with Soos and Manly Dan switching to drive.

Without any time to lose they began traveling down a highway towards Oregon. The first few hours were silent, the only sounds in the RV was the engine, the items rattling, and the clicking sounds of Mabel's knitting needles. Pacifica ended up reading a few books that were Dipper, causing Ford to be impressed with her, her stating because of years of private tutors she was a lot smarter then she lets on. Wendy was cleaning some of the hunted animals, getting rid of fur and feathers.

Mabel, after finishing her knitting, walked back into the room she had shared with her brother, Pacifica actually following behind. When Mabel went to close the door she was surprised that the blonde was there.

"GAH!" Mabel yelped, jumping back as Pacifica closes the door. "Pacifica, what are you doing here?"

"I didn't really want to be out there with your Uncle Ford…" she says. "He keeps asking me questions about my intelligence…"

"He does that." Mabel giggles. "He's a smart guy. That must be part of some secret Pines gene that only he and Dipper got." She then takes off the pine tree hat and puts the hat on the pillow that Dipper used.

"You and your brother shared this room?" Pacifica asked, noting a lot of cluttered books and papers on one side while the other had craft items.

Mabel nods as she pets Waddles, who was curled up by her pillow. "Yeah." She confirmed as she sits on the edge of the bed, taking out the things she had packed for the trip to Europe. Her heart skipped a beat when she felt the handle of the memory erasing gun.

Pacifica raises a blonde eyebrow. "Mabel, are you okay?" she asked. "You look suddenly pale…"

Mabel pulls out the gun and the note Dipper had wrote. She had forgotten that she had it… maybe if she had remembered about it she could've freed Dipper from Bill back in Greenland. The blonde then sits next to her, taking the note and reading it.

"Dipper had known about the whole thing with Bill…?" Pacifica whispered in shock. "He knew he would have to make a deal with him…?" she then picks up the gun. "Do you even think you can point this at Dipper?"

"I don't know…" Mabel confesses. "I want my brother to be free of Bill… but I don't want him to forget about me either."

Pacifica then says something that shocked and hurt Mabel at the same time. "Maybe… it's for the best he has his mind erased… Don't get upset with me, Mabel, but think about it for a minute. Bill has made Dipper do horrible, unimaginable things… he made a sweet boy kill innocent people just for the hell of it. Do you really think Dipper wants to remember all of that…?" her green eyes looked very sad, ready to cry.

Tears fill Mabel's eyes. How could she be so selfish? For all their lives Dipper had dropped what he was doing for her, not caring if it didn't benefit him. He did what she wanted because she was his sister, although he would complain about it he did it nonetheless. The very few times Dipper asked Mabel to do something for or with him most of the time she ignored him or messed things up. He even gave up his freedom, basically his _humanity_ , for her to be safe.

But what Pacifica made sense… he wouldn't want to remember all those people he was forced to kill. He wouldn't want to wake up from nightmares every night and beg for them to stop.

"You're right, Pacifica…" Mabel tearfully says. "I can't be selfish… I don't want my brother to suffer…" she rubs her eyes, feeling the tears spill over as she gingerly takes the memory gun from the blonde. "Once we see Bipper I'll shoot him with this… that way Bill dies and not just get banished to another dimension so he could try this sort of thing again with some other poor sap… and I will save my brother…"

* * *

As Stan sped on the highway, about halfway through New Mexico, his hands on the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles almost white.

After this whole ordeal was over he never wanted to drive _anything_ again. All he has been doing was sit and sit and sit, which was irritating him that he wasn't really moving around. As a child he was very active, always running around doing something. As he got older it did die down, especially when for thirty years he was staying up super late trying to work on the portal. But once he got Ford back from the portal he was able to sleep a lot better, still not the best because he was worried about his relationship with his brother, but it was the better sleep he had in years. With this newfound sleep he was a bit more active again, especially when he went hunting with Dipper he had a lot of energy.

The thought of Dipper made the old con man's heart ache. He did miss the kid a lot. Even though the kid was more like Ford in personality and smarts, in a way Stan saw a lot of himself in the kid too. When needed be Dipper could con and cheat out of anything, he even had a mini version of Stan's suit when Mabel was in charge of the Mystery Shack once, the boy conning people out of almost double the amount of money he would've. The kid even had a knack for destruction, happy to spend time with his family by vandalizing the new Mayor Tyler's home. All in all Dipper was a good kid, he had fun and had time to be smart in his weird way.

 _We're gonna get him back…_

"Stanley, you missed the exit." Ford's voice breaks through Stan's thoughts. Without thinking he did an illegal U-turn in the middle of the road and went back to the exit. "ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US?!" Ford screams, holding onto the arms of his chair tightly.

"Look, we are the _only ones_ driving besides the others on the bus. We're fine." Stan says nonchalantly. "Then again I've done this with other cars around too… so, eh."

"HOW THE HELL DID OREGON LET YOU KEEP RENEWING YOUR LICENCE!?" Ford demands, his face pale and his knuckles white, holding for dear life.

"I used your name, remember, Sixer?" Stan points out. "You had pretty much a perfect driving record so I kept renewing it. It wasn't until I was 50 or something that I started getting a lot more tickets and getting in trouble… and once that happened I just bribed them."

"Good God, you tarnished my name _and_ your own…" Ford frowns, clearly not amused.

"Eh." Stan shrugs as he took the exit to get to a different highway.

At some point during the hours of travel Stan and Ford switched, Ford driving like a grandma compared to how Stan was driving. Ford drove throughout the night, Stan getting a chance to rest, something Ford couldn't do because he had to make sure his younger twin brother didn't get them all killed. The old scientist was used to not getting much sleep at this point, and he rather not sleep anyway.

He sped along the highway, noting people were sleeping at random spots. He knew Mabel and Pacifica were sleeping in the back room, Stan was in the passenger seat, and Wendy ended up crashing in Stan's room. He glances at his twin, whose mouth was open wide and was snoring loudly, and Ford couldn't help but grin remembering them sharing a room as kids and him snoring.

By the time morning came they were exiting Utah, heading into Idaho. Wendy ended up driving this time, even though she didn't have a license, just so the two old Pines could get a break from driving. When Stan suggested it, Ford was ecstatic that the young red-head can drive. But once she started driving it made Ford uneasy as she was speeding down the highway, dodging whatever cars and potholes were around.

"Taught her everything she knows," Stan proudly says, hands on his hips. "She asked me to teach her since Manly Dan was busy with his job when she got her permit."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Ford screams. "I RATHER HAVE WADDLES DRIVE, THIS IS TERRIFYING!"

"Eh, it's fine." Stan waves it off. "We aren't dead. Yet…" he then walks into the small kitchen and grabbed a small magazine, him clearly not caring that Wendy was driving like a maniac.

Something then slams into the side of the RV, causing Wendy to swerve around. Ford fell to the floor, his head smacking against the ground, almost making his glasses fly off. He gets up, hand at the side where his holder was for his interdimensional gun, his arms raised. Ford no longer had his trench coat because of ripping it for bandages, so as he stood there in his normal stance he felt odd not having his coat flow behind him dramatically.

"What the hell was that!?" cried Stan as he puts his face by the window. What he saw running alongside the RV was a shadow-looking creature that resembled a cheetah or a leopard, but it was literally the size of a bear. It knocks into the side again, causing Stan to fall out of his seat.

The door to the bedroom opens and Mabel and Pacifica run out. Both girls looked by the window and see the creature, both gasping.

"What is that!?" Pacifica screams as Ford made his way to the window. He opens it, causing his dark gray hair to be blown back and the girls' hair blow around, and he outs half his torso outside so he could properly aim.

"Grunkle Ford!" Mabel shouts as she goes to tug on his dark maroon colored sweater she had knitted for him, about to pull him back. "That's dangerous!"

"So it letting that thing run us off the highway!" Ford reasons as the creature slams again. The sound of metal scrapping meatal burns his ears, the opposite side of the RV being grinded against the rail guards. One more knock like that… "Shit!" Ford grumbles as he takes aim, his hand was shaking and wobbling from the combination of the wind and the RV bumping around, so when he took fire he missed the creature completely. "DAMN IT!" Ford screams as he tried to aim again.

Pacifica had grabbed a sniper rifle that was standing in the corner, her hands gripping tightly around it. As Ford went to fire his gun a second time Pacifica pushes out of the way, which caused him to fall backwards onto Mabel. The young blonde aimed the sniper outside the window, her hand as steady as it could with everything. With a deep breath she looked through the scope and saw the monster's face.

The monster, although it's body was the size of a bear and looked like a giant cat, its face was the face of a human. The face looked as if it was just ripped off a body and plastered onto its face, its neon green eyes darting around looking at everything but nothing at the same time. Its mouth was human, but a long tongue was out, almost ropelike, as it was gripped to the side of the RV to stay in pace with it.

Pacifica bit back a scream as she aimed more at its head area, hoping to get something. She takes a shot, the bullet clipping the beast's tongue, a large, bloody tear ripping through the fibers. The monster's eyes widens as the rest of the tongue rips off, as it had slowed down in pain, and it tumbles on the concrete, the bus that was following them running it over and causing it to explode in black blood and guts under its wheel.

The blonde shuts the window, herself lowering to the ground trying to catch her breath. She couldn't believe she just did that… it was like she was a completely different person.

"That was amazing, Pacifica!" Mabel cries out, her crawling away from being next to Ford and giving her friend a huge hug. The blonde looks to the brunette with large green eyes.

"Yeah, good job, kid!" Stan agrees, giving a pat on the blonde's shoulder.

"It was luck it clipped the tongue though…" Pacifica says bashfully. "I wasn't really aiming for it…"

Ford was still on the ground, him sitting up. As he stands up he puts his gun back in his holster as he goes and looks out the window. His brown eyes dart around, making sure nothing else was around.

"Well, whatever you did, it got rid of the monster." Ford tells her, him turning around, hands behind his back. Sometimes he did that out of old habit from hiding his polydactyl abnormality. "So, good job, Pacifica." He then gives a smile, and it seemed to be a family thing because the whole Pines family Pacifica knew had that same exact smile, full and almost childlike.

"Thanks…" Pacifica says as she puts the sniper rifle back where she had found it.

"Wendy, how ya doing up there, kid?" Stan calls to the redhead.

"Can we switch now?" Wendy asks. "I think I've been scarred for life and no longer want to drive." Stan gives a laugh as he walks up there, telling her to pull over to the side so they could switch.

* * *

For the rest of the trip Stan and Ford kept switching. Ford was the one who saw the "Welcome to Oregon" sign. After pulling into Jordan Valley from Highway 95, Ford finds a small motel that so that everyone could rest on actual beds for a bit, himself included. From looking at a map he could guess they were about three to four hours away from Gravity Falls.

"We're pretty close… aren't we, Sixer?" Stan asks him.

"Yeah, Stanley." Ford tells him, putting the map down.

"Do you think we can beat him?" Stan asked, the same question he had asked only a few days ago.

Ford grips his hand into a fist.

"I will make sure we win."


	26. Chapter 26: The Pine Tree's Sacrifice

**Chapter 26: The Pine Tree's Sacrifice**

Bipper sits on his main throne in the Gravity Falls pyramid, the throne still screaming loudly in agonizing pain, blood and fat still oozing from cracked, charcoal skin.

His leg was crossed over, his normal sitting position, and he gazed down at the people he had taken from the camp back in Texas. Bipper was saving them for when the Pines family and the others of the wheel would get here, wanting to torture the people they wanted to help protect right in front of them.

In Dipper's mind he recognized a few people from the time he was at the camp or saw with Bud Gleeful. He noticed there were a lot of small children, and his inner mind panicked, already imagining all the blood and screams. For a moment he want to run away, causing Bipper's leg to twitch involuntarily.

"Really, Pine Tree?" Bill's shrill voice echoes in his head. "You're really trying to resist again?"

 _No…_

 _"_ _Don't lie, Pine Tree."_ A snap of Bipper's fingers caused a person from the group to burst into blue flames, making them scream and drop to the ground, trying to stop the fire from harming them. But the fire ripped through the person with such an intensity that all was left after a few minutes of agonizing screaming was a pile of gray dust.

 _STOP IT!_

Bipper then cackles, startling the petrified people in the main room. He had been amused this past week of torturing Pine Tree. The kid had lost a significant amount of weight from bulimia, him eating something but would end up throwing up from him mass murdering out of disgust and horror. Pine Tree was haunted with visions every night, causing him to wake up and scream and cry.

A demon then enters the room, one that looked similar to a gargoyle. The group backed away, terrified as the monster grinned at them evilly. The gargoyle bows in front of the screaming throne, Bipper uncrossing his legs and leaning forward, eager to hear any news.

"Master Cipher," the gargoyle greeted, still in its bowed position. "The Pines family and the wheel has arrived in here in Oregon." It then looked up slightly, red beady eyes, seeing the twisted, amused smile of the possessed boy.

 _"_ _Just what I wanted to hear…"_ Bipper then cackles as he stands up, the blue flames on torches on the walls dancing happily.

 _"_ _Now the fun can_ REALLY _begin!"_

* * *

Mabel was sitting on the motel bed, her weapons and items in front of her neatly arranged.

She had her handgun, fully loaded and the safety on, sitting next to her grappling hook. The memory erasing gun was next to the grappling hook, its brass looking exterior glowing in the weak sunlight that drifted in through the window. The note Dipper wrote underneath it. Her heart felt uneasy in her chest, making her almost feel sick.

Could she actually point that gun at her brother and erase him?

She had no other choice if the zodiac wheel doesn't work. In fact, Ford never told them what the wheel was supposed to do. She figured it was to banish Bill back to his original dimension or something. But she didn't want him just banished, she wanted Bill _dead._

For years while Ford was studying in Gravity Falls the demon mentally tortured him, making build a portal and tricking him. For years it caused Ford paranoia and trust issues. Then in recent years Bill was tormenting Stan, herself, and his mentally torturing Dipper. Bill was nothing but a monster, but that seemed like an insult to the monsters she had faced so far in life.

Mabel picks up the memory erasing gun and runs her fingers over the brass metal that decorated it. She knew she had to be the one to do it, Dipper wanted her to. She couldn't let anyone else erase her brother, as much as it broke her heart, she needed to free him from Bill's control and the terrible memories that plague him.

The door to the room opened and Stan pokes his head in, his fez neatly on his almost silver colored hair. Mabel quickly hides the memory gun in her small backpack, not wanting her grunkle to see it.

"You almost ready, sweetie?" Stan asks softly, his tone a little worried.

"Yeah, just packing a little bag." Mabel replies, putting her other items including a small first aid kit in the backpack. "… I'm really scared, Grunkle Stan." She then admits, her body trembling.

Stan crosses over in the room and kneels down to one knee, pulling him close to her in a tight embrace. "I'm scared too…" he then tells her. "I'm so terrified right now…"

"What if the wheel doesn't work…?" Mabel asks tearfully, her small arms wrapping around Stan. "What if we can't get Dipper back…?"

"We _will_ get Dipper back because the wheel _will_ work." Ford's voice interrupts from the doorway, both Stan and Mabel looking up.

Ford wore a black sweater with no design in it, black pants, and his normal muddy boots. He once again wore a trench coat, but it was a midnight black, and he wore black gloves that he made himself for his six-fingered hands. In a way it looked like he just stepped out of the portal again.

"How do you know, Grunkle Ford?" Mabel asks him, pulling away from Stan and standing up. "What does the wheel exactly do?"

"According to my research the wheel is supposed to be high enough in magical energy that can banish Bill to his original dimension." Ford states. "From what I've read about Bill during my studies in Gravity Falls, and from what he even told me himself, it's a dimension in which he can never return to because of so many enemies. Bill has probably done something so horrible that they have the ability to execute him or something like that."

"So… the wheel is basically a portal to his dimension?" Stan then questions.

"More or less." Ford confirms. "We just need to make sure Dipper can resist Bill long enough to be part of the wheel so it can happen."

Stan then frowns. "Stanford, when you first met Bill in Gravity Falls he was a spiritual form right?" his twin nods. "When we tried to do the wheel the first time… that I cost us… he had a physical form right?" his twin nods again, but more slowly, trying to get at what Stan was trying to say. "What if you can't _spiritually_ send him back, but _physically_?"

"What are you trying to ask, Stanley?" Ford then snaps.

Stan was unfazed by Ford's angry outburst. "I'm asking if we do the wheel will it send Dipper to Bill's dimension too?" he calmly states in one of the most serious sounding tones that Mabel, or even Ford, ever heard from him.

Ford's eyes widened. He never thought of that, it never crossed his mind. In all honesty he barely understood the wheel himself. He puts a hand to his head, scratching his head, gently moving the fluffy, dark gray hair.

"In all honesty, Lee," Ford whispers, using such an old nickname of Stan's that hadn't been used since they were extremely small. "I don't know… I have _no_ idea…" his chest clenches. "Great… now you're making me second guess myself… I wouldn't want to send Dipper there… him trapped in another dimension with no way home…" tears start falling down his face. "I don't want him to end up like me… he's already half way there with all this mental torture Bill is putting him through… Dipper is just a kid… I was at least an adult when all of this happened to me…"

Both Stan and Mabel then go up to Ford, giving the depressed scientist a warm hug. Slowly, Ford puts his arms around his brother and his great niece, his body shaking. Everything was his fault, his whole family being tortured, so many people being killed… it was all because of him.

All because he got mad at his brother for something that was an accident, because he couldn't forgive and move on, him holding in his anger and emotions, building up a hatred to his twin brother that had been with him for most of his life. He let his love of science and the paranormal get in the way of his family, risking everything just because he wanted more knowledge.

"It's okay, Stanford," Stan tells his brother. "I'm sorry for what I did in the past… it's my fault you ended up not going to the school you wanted… all because I didn't want to imagine a future without you…"

"I'm sorry too, Stanley," Ford then says, his voice thick with emotion. "I let that anger control me… and I never truly said thank you for getting me back home…"

After another few minutes of hugging and crying, the three person embrace broke apart. With a gentle hand, Mabel takes both of her grunkles' hands and pulls them toward the door, her backpack on her back.

"We will save Dipper and save the world," Mabel states, turning around to give Stan and Ford large brown eyes. "Because we will do it together as a _family._ "

Both Stan and Ford give identical, huge smiles as they let Mabel lead them to outside the motel to the RV and bus. Everyone was waiting, each wearing a sweater or some other article of clothing to represent their symbol on the zodiac.

Gideon then steps forward, "Everyone ready?" he asks, his voice a little high and wavering, clearly nervous on what is about to happen.

"As ready as we'll ever be." Ford replies as he gently lets go of Mabel's hand and walks to the RV.

As everyone piles onto the bus and the RV, George stayed behind for a moment and puts a hand on Mabel's shoulder.

"You okay?" he asks.

"No…" she replies, her eyes up in the sky, seeing a large x-shaped tear in the distance, knowing that Gravity Falls was there.

"But, I have to be for Dipper."

* * *

Ford drives down the dirt roads, heading towards Gravity Falls, Stan in the passenger seat next to him, looking at his gun and making sure everything was in order.

"So… this is it, Sixer." Stan grimly says. "The final showdown."

"Indeed it is, knucklehead." Ford replies, he tone equal to his brother's.

Soon the old looking sign that read "Welcome to Gravity Falls" and just underneath it read "Nothing to See Here Folks". Ford slowed down the RV, its wheels rolling unevenly over the stones and gravel of the road. The trees around them were charred black, no leaves hung on the branches. In the distance the giant, floating eyeballs with bat wings flied around, looking for any potential victims.

The old scientist's heart pounds in his chest as he found the collapsed Mystery Shack in a fairly large crater. He remembered when it was a giant robot, a plan made by the kids and McGucket to save him from Bill the first time. Seeing his old home, and the business Stan turned it into, made him uneasy. He pulls next to the down building, wood rotting at its sides and the roof in shambles.

"We need to make an official plan." Ford states as he gets out. Everyone follows his example, people getting off the bus that followed as well. Ford goes inside the Shack, seeing everything broken and covered in dust. Once everyone was inside with him, he then begins to explain, "For the zodiac to work, we need to join hands, and through my research I found an incantation, it's in Latin so bear with me here.

 _"_ _Gravitate caeli et terrae cum factum est , sicut cum oculus timete bestia_ _,_ _Manus in manu nostra rota fit, ut in fine deficere bestiam_ _,_ _Una cessare faciam in te quod non aditus vere inmortale animal oculis perdere_ _,_ _Cum enim convenerant manibus nostris Maximo vicotry adversum te."_

McGucket's eyes widened as he knew exactly what it meant. "When Gravity Falls and Earth become sky, fear the beast with just one eye. Hand in hand our wheel is made, to cause the beast in the end to fade. Together we will banish you back through the portal, to destroy the one eyed beast that is not truly immortal. For when we come together, hand in hand, our victory against you will be grand." It seemed like a full prophecy.

"That sounds like a mouthful," Stan complains. "Do we all have to say it or can you two nerds just do it?"

"I think if one or two people would just stun him… but not actually do anything." Ford says. Then his eyes widen with realization. "That's what we can do… we stun Bill long enough while Dipper resists, it would cause Bill to leave his body and then we can do the full incantation together."

Mabel's heart pounds in her chest, maybe she didn't have to wipe Dipper's memories completely. Maybe… just after this is all over she can just erase the memories of his time as Bill's puppet. It made her sigh almost with relief, but she still kept the memory gun with her, just in case it had to be done.

With the plan in motion everyone leaves the destroyed Mystery Shack. The begin walking towards the main pyramid that was built after Weirdmageddon was spread. It was twice the size as the other pyramids they have seen, it looking like the tip of it was going into the large tear in the sky. Mabel subconsciously went to grab for Dipper's hand, who had usually always been beside her, but her hand hits empty air. Without a warning a hand grabs her, and she looks over to see George, his face set in a determined position, his eyes hard looking. He gives her a comforting squeeze, which made her feel a lot better.

Ford leads the group inside the main entrance of the pyramid, knowing it wouldn't be guarded since Bill wanted them to come to Gravity Falls. The old scientist knew that Bill was somehow going to kill him, the demon most likely looking through every loophole in his and Dipper's deal. As he led them through the hallways, which he was all too familiar with from his time being Bill's puppet, he began to hear the screams of the throne.

Chills go up Mabel's spine, her never hearing such noise before. George's eyes widened when he began hearing the screams too. Melody pushes herself closer to Soos, her looking terrified. Wendy tried not to act scared, but she still stood next to Manly Dan close as well. When the room opens up, everyone sees the group that had been at their camp. George gives a sigh of relief seeing his friend's mother still alive. With a wave of a hand from Ford they all began moving towards them, trying to get away from the center as much as they could.

Standing on high podium with many steps, the screaming throne behind him, was Bipper in his usual outfit with glowing gold eyes. _"_ _Well, well, well,"_ Bipper cackles shrilly, his voice echoing in the room. _"I'm so glad you all can join us! Now we can have fun!"_

"I'm giving you one last chance, Cipher!" Ford screams. "Give us back Dipper peacefully, or we will get him back from you by force!"

Bippers cocks his head to the side. _"What are you going to do, huh?"_ he lowly says, taking the tone of Dipper. _"Do you really think that your stupid zodiac wheel is going to stop me?"_ he began stepping down the stairs, and as he did his hands were covered in an angry red flame. The throne behind him then began to crumble down, the screams of pain finally subsiding as they all were released into the afterlife. _"I'm already bound to Pine Tree's soul… you say that incantation and it's bye-bye Pine Tree!"_ he finally makes it to the bottom of the stairs, his whole body being licked by the red flames.

During his little dramatic stair descent, Ford had drawn the wheel on the floor. This was yet another variation of the wheel, this time he kept the Pines family all together: The Shooting Star, the Pine Tree, the Six-fingered Hand, and the Crescent-Shape.

"Dipper!" Mabel then screams. "I know you're in there, in your mind, just fight it! We have a plan…! Just resist!" Bipper laughs, a dark laugh that truly mocked Dipper's normal laughter. _"Really, Shooting Star? You think you saying that is going to make him-"_ his voice cuts off as his body stumbles. _"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PINE TREE?"_ he stumbles again and then collapsed to his knees. His body was violently shaking as he began throwing up blood, his arms wrapped around his body.

"Dipper!" Mabel screams as she runs up to her twin. Ford and Stan yelled at her not to go near him, but she ignored them, causing them to follow her. "Dipper! Hold on!" she cries, her eyes filling with tears.

"M…Mabel…" Dipper groaned, the flames that were around him subsiding. He looks up, one eye his brown color, the other the brilliant gold. He screamed in pain, his body twitching as he fell to his side.

"Dipper, I'm right here!" Mabel screams as she falls to her knees to be beside her brother. "That's good, Dipper, just keep fighting!"

"The… wheel… won't work…" Dipper gasps, blood trickling from his mouth.

Ford and Stan finally made it to his side, Stan picking Dipper up for his head to lean on Ford's lap next to him. "What do you mean the wheel won't work?" Ford demands, panic in his eyes.

"It… won't get… rid of him… only… stun him…" Dipper whispered, him violently shaking once again. He begins screaming, hands gripped in his brown hair. Both eyes glow gold for a moment, then they flash back to his brown. He was trying to resist, but he was losing energy fast. "He's… too powerful…" he then states. "Wheel… won't…. work…"

Mabel then grabs the backpack off her back, getting the memory gun and Dipper's note. She hold the gun in front of her for a moment, causing Ford and Stan's eyes to widen.

"Why do you have that, Mabel!?" Stan screams in horror.

"Because… Dipper had this plan all along…" Mabel states as she shows the note. "He said to wipe his mind… and he most likely erased his memory of writing this note and making that plan.

"We…" Ford began saying but trailed off. He had thought of that plan back at the start of Weirdmageddon, with Stan suggesting they switch and his mind would be erased. Now Ford really regrets not doing it, as now a 14-year-old boy had to make that sacrifice.

Dipper then sits up abruptly, blood pouring from his mouth. He then grips his sister's shooting star sweater, making himself stare into her eyes. "Mabel… please, _please I beg of you do it!_ " his voice cracked as tears fell from his different colored eyes. "We will do the wheel to stun him… and I want _you to erase my mind!"_ he was begging, his eyes pleading.

Once again doubt trickles through Mabel. How could she point blank erase her brother's mind? He was her twin brother, her other half so to speak. "But…" Mabel began but a scream rips through Dipper that made her choke back a sob, "I DON'T CARE THAT MY MEMORIES ARE GONE! I DON'T WANT TO REMEMBER ALL THE PEOPLE I KILLED, RIPPING THEIR LIVES AWAY!" He then shook her shoulders, madness in his eyes, a look that looked familiar to Ford and even Stan. "For our entire lives I have dropped _everything_ for you!" blood then trickles from his nose and the corners of his eyes, it was literally taking his life force to resist Bill. "This is the _one thing_ I ask you to do! _PLEASE, MABEL! FOR ONCE JUST DO WHAT I ASK!"_

Her mouth quivers as she slowly nods her head. "We… need to get to the wheel…" she whispers as Stan and Ford help Dipper up.

The boy screams once again, ripping away from their grip. _"_ _I'm not giving up Pine Tree that easily!"_ Bill's voice rips through Dipper's body, him staggering as the pyramid began to shake and the walls were beginning to be covered in fire. _"I'll kill you all! I don't care!"_ his hands goes to his head and Dipper screams.

Soos then makes the people who weren't part of the wheel to get outside to safety. Melody and Manly Dan leading the scared people. Melody gives Soos a quick kiss and she leaves, a child gripping her hand tightly in fear. George had glanced at Mabel, but he knew he couldn't do anything, so once their eyes met for a brief moment he gives a nod and follows the rest of the group out.

Stan then grips Dipper's arms, holding them to the boy's side so he wouldn't be practically ripping his hair out. Ford then helps Stan by getting Dipper's legs and he lift up, the two carrying him to the wheel. Mabel follows, putting the memory gun back into the backpack as she carried it.

"Just a little bit longer, Dipper!" Stan tells the screaming teenager. "You'll be free of this is a minute… I promise, kid…" Stan looked terrified and worried for the kid, his heart feeling like it was going to rip from his chest seeing the kid be tortured.

They set him on his pine tree spot on the wheel, him collapsing to his knees screaming. Ford and Stan join hands, the others joining in. Pacifica grabs Mabel's and Robbie's hands, while Robbie grabbed Wendy's, who grabbed Soos's hand, who then grabs Gideon's, then Gideon grips McGucket's as the old man holds Stan's other hand. The only one not holding hands was Dipper's, who was violently coughing up blood.

Slowly, he stands up and grabs both Mabel's and Ford's hands, him pulling himself up. Everyone began glowing a faint blue, the circle beneath them glowing. Ford and McGucket began saying the incantation, which was making Dipper's body hot. The pyramid continued to violently shake, the floor beginning to crack beneath them.

 _NO! NO! I WILL NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!_ Bill screamed in Dipper's mind, his head feeling like it was going to explode.

"Not… a chance… asshole…" Dipper mutters darkly, a slight smile on his face. He then collapses onto the ground backwards, his eyes heavy and his body feeling numb, his head slamming into the ground.

"DIPPER!" Mabel screams, dropping Pacifica's hand and crouching next to him. "DIPPER, DIPPER!" she called his name.

"Mabel…" Ford calmly says to her, putting a hand to her shoulder. "You know what you have to do…" Mabel nods her head as she shakily opens her backpack, getting the memory erasing gun. She turns it on, setting what she needed to set to erase his entire mind. Mabel typed in Dipper's real name into the screen, and she slowly aims it toward her brother's head. The gun was violently shaking as she takes a deep, shaky breath. "I'm sorry, Dipper…" she whispers as she pulls the trigger, a blue beam shooting out, hitting her brother in the head full on.

* * *

Dipper was standing in his mindscape, which looked a lot like his and Mabel's room in the attic at the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls.

Bill stood in front of him, his body red and his eye black. Blue flames began surrounding the room, engulfing whatever exits that were around.

"You idiot, Pine Tree!" Bill screams in anger. "You're willing to basically kill yourself for your damn _FAMILY_!? You could've been a god, Pine Tree, to rule the universe! And you're giving it up for them!?"

Dipper calmly stares back, him wearing his red-orange shirt with his navy blue vest, gray shorts, and his blue and white pine tree hat sitting proudly sitting on his head. He gives a shrug. "That's the one thing I will always do, Cipher." Dipper tells him. "My family is the most important thing in this world. Just because you never have had someone that loved you, doesn't mean you have to make everyone feel the way you do. You become a person, or demon in your case, to be worth loving. You choose your own path to gain acceptance, but instead you chose death and destruction."

Bill staggers backwards, the blue flames beginning to take over him. He was being erased, he could feel his life tearing away. His body turns yellow as his eye widens. "NO!" he screamed. "NO, NO, NO, NO!"

Dipper then steps forward. "You messed with my family," he darkly says. "You tortured my uncles, you tried to kill my sister… and you messed with my extended family, my friends! That was a _fatal_ mistake!" Dipper then pushes Bill body further into the flames, causing the demon to scream in rage and in pain. "NOW BURN IN HELL!"

The demon's body explodes into a series of colors. It fueled the flames and they begin to claw towards Dipper. Dipper gives a sad smile, knowing what was coming. He turns around behind him, now seeing a vision of his family.

"I love you guys… and thank you, Mabel, for being my twin sister…"

He closes his eyes as the flames engulfed him.


	27. Chapter 27: Memories

**Chapter 27: Memories**

The blue beam that came from the memory gun slowly faded away and Mabel lowers it, her heart breaking in two as she saw her unconscious twin brother on the ground, his face pale and bloody.

The scenery had changed from the pyramid to a now lively green forest. The grass was greenish, but slowly getting covered with a light powder of fresh snow as it began to fall from the sky. The trees stood large and tall, the branches bare for the winter weather, and the pine trees that were around stood proudly.

Everything seemed to return to the way it was before Cipher's Reign on the world.

"Dipper…!" Mabel cries as she lowers herself to his side. She gently picks his head up and places it on her lap, ignoring the blood the slowly dripped off his face. "Please… please, wake up!" her brown eyes were filled with hot tears, snot was coming from her nose, her face was red and puffy looking as she finally just breaks down and sobs uncontrollably.

Ford and Stan lowered themselves to the ground, Stan crying as Ford checked for a pulse. Ford stated that Dipper was alive, but just barely. The rest of the wheel broke the circle, Wendy putting a hand to her mouth and Pacifica looking as if she was going to cry. Gideon looked worried as he stared and so did Robbie. Soos was crying as well, seeing his young friend in this state, and from a distance when the others of the group had left Melody came to comfort Soos.

"Dipper… please wake up, please do!" Mabel sobbed as she then lifted him, him being so light from his weight loss, and she hugged him close to her. He moved like a ragdoll and was limp, she could barely hear his breathing. "Please, Dipping-sauce! Dip'n Dot…!" her body was trembling and shaking and Stan puts a hand to her back to try to comfort her.

A groan escapes the boy. He slowly puts a hand to his head, him coughing in the process. Mabel pulls away from the embrace and holds her brother arm's length away from her to look at him.

"Dipper!" Mabel cries, worry in her voice as it shook from her crying. "Are you okay?"

He looks at her with confused brown eyes. It looked as if he was looking at a stranger. He gently cocks his head to the side and gives a blood, half smile. "Hello," he greeted. "May I ask why you're holding me…? I don't know you… so this is a little awkward."

Mabel's heart shatters when her brother uttered those words. She lowers her head and screams loudly, a mix of anguish and anger. Bill had made her take away her brother from her, now he doesn't know who she was. Her hands were still gripped onto his shoulders, the boy's eyes wide with confusion and worry. "Is… she okay?" Dipper asks Ford, who was next to him. Dipper then notices the old scientist was crying as well, and when Dipper looked to Stan he saw the tears as well. As Dipper looked around he saw that everyone was crying. "Why… are you all crying?" he asks. He then felt something hot fall on his cheeks and he gently puts a hand up, wiping tears. "Why… am _I_ crying…?"

"I'm your twin sister…!" Mabel raised her head and tells him, her words wavering in despair. "My name is Mabel…! Your name is Dipper!" she shook him gently. "Please… out of everything, please remember that!"

"Twin… sister?" Dipper echoes in confusion. "I'm… not following…"

Ford then gently removes Mabel's hands from Dipper's shoulders. "Sweetie… you… erased his mind… he doesn't remember anything…" Ford whispers sadly, he then glances at Dipper. "But… he made the ultimate sacrifice… he became a puppet and gave up everything just so… just so we can be safe…" tears falls down his face as he stared at Dipper's blank face, the kid had reminded him so much of his younger self. "He's a hero… at fourteen-and-a-half years old… he gave up everything." It was Ford's turn to give Dipper a hug, to which Dipper's chokes back a sound of surprise. After Ford was done Stan did the same, Dipper now realizing that the two men looked eerily similar to each other.

"There has to be _something!_ " Mabel insists, her face was so red with anger and sadness that you couldn't see her natural pink circles on her cheeks anymore. "Please, Grunkle Ford, tell me there is a possible way! I don't care if he has forgotten everything… I just want him to remember that I'm his twin sister!" The girl then pulls Dipper into an embrace once again, sobbing into his shoulder. "Please… please remember…!"

The boy did something so involuntarily, but at the same time so familiar to him. "Pat, pat." He then whispered as he patted her back twice overdramatically.

Mabel gasps, "What did you say!?" as she pulls away from him.

"Pat, pat…?" Dipper says again, squinting his eyes in confusion. "I-I don't know why that came to mind…" he puts a hand to his head and groans. "Awkward Sibling Hug…?"

Mabel gives a tearful smile and hugs Dipper closer to him. "Sincere Sibling Hug!" she says to him as they both in unison patted each other's backs and said "Pat, pat."

She then helps her confused twin up from the ground, who staggered weakly. Ford and Stan put strong arms around him, keeping up. Dipper looked as if he was going to pass out any minute, blood drying on his face. He still didn't know why he knew that phrase, it just seemed to pop into his head. Ford and Stan began to help Dipper walk across the frosted ground, trying to get back to the Shack.

Everyone from the large group was walking alongside, some shivering from the cold. The people that Bill had taken were still shaken, but otherwise was unhurt. The people who were in the cells before were slowly wandering around in the frost glinted woods, now happy to be finally free. All the people eyed Dipper, a mix of weariness and sadness.

Once they all made it to the area that had the Shack, it was gone, the crater beneath it filled once again. With an irritated sigh Ford arranges people to get in either in the bus or the RV to be transferred to the Mystery Shack at its original position. As Dipper sat in the RV's small kitchen table, Mabel had gone into the room and brought out a few scrapbooks from over the years. Ford and Stan sat across from him, Manly Dan deciding that he will drive the RV so the two old twins could look after Dipper.

"Um… Mabel, right?" he asks her when she sits next to him. She nods, a little sad, and she opens a scrapbook that read "Mabel and Dipper: Birth to Five". Where Dipper's name was there was another name crossed out in thick black marker, the name "Dipper" written in a gold colored marker over the black. "What's that…?" he then asks her.

"This is some baby pictures of us…" she tells him. "Maybe… something will jog in your memory?" she then opens it, the top page saying "August 31, 1999" in bold letters. In the pictures there were two babies, one with pink cheeks and the other with a pink nose with an odd birthmark on his forehead. Dipper looks that that picture for a moment, his face scrunched up.

"Is that why my name is Dipper?" he questions as he looked at the birth mark. Absently he rubs his own, frowning. "The Big Dipper? That's a pretty stupid name…"

Mabel frowns. "Well… it's not your _real_ name. You don't like your real name, so everyone has been calling you Dipper since we were five." She then turns the page to when they were a little older, both getting brown tufts of hair on their heads. Dipper flips through the scrapbook, sometimes muttering about why something would happen like that. Then he came across a picture of himself wearing a lamb costume with a big pink bow tied around his neck.

" _Well… who wants a lamby, lamby, lamby? I do, I do! So, go up and greet your mammy, mammy, mammy! Hi there, hi there! So march, march, march around the daisies! Don't, don't, don't you forget about the baby!_ " Dipper randomly sang when he looked at the picture, even at the end of the song he put a finger to his cheek and gave a wink and a smile. He shakes his head, wandering why that popped into his head.

Stan laughs, forgetting that the kid was forced to do that when he was younger. Ford couldn't help but laugh as well, never hearing that song before, thinking it was amusing. Mabel gives a smile as she saw Dipper giving a small grin.

"Mom loved making me do that…" he whispers sadly. It was like he knew she wasn't around anymore.

Mabel looks around, realizing even though the world looked right again, it couldn't bring back the dead. She looks down at another one of her scrapbooks, seeing the one from the summer they first came to Gravity Falls. She opens it and as she did Dipper asks, "Are you wearing my pine tree hat?" he pointed to the hat on her head, her eyes darting up. She nods as she takes it off and places it on it his head, making him look odd with his torn up suit.

Dipper gives a big smile. He felt odd for a little bit, but as soon as the hat touched his head he felt a lot better. A memory pops into his head of being in some shopfront in front of a tiny mirror by the hats as he placed it on. Why did he remember that?

Soon the RV stops in front of an old looking cabin, the wooden exterior broken in random spots. As the Pines family and the people of the wheel got off the bus and RV, Dipper walks into the Mystery Shack, feeling strangely at home. He looks around the house, eventually finding the gift shop, seeing the shelves that used to be filled with so many souvenirs and fake attractions.

"Do you remember anything, Dipper?" Mabel asks behind him, causing him to jump and turn around. But before he could answer he hears a loud "BOO!" by his ear and he turns to see a green, sea creature-looking mask. Dipper screams, putting a hand to his chest.

"Grunkle Stan, why would you do that!?" Dipper demands, trying to calm his pounding heart. The old man takes off the mask and gives a hearty laugh. Dipper didn't know why he called him his "grunkle".

"It got you to spring up a memory, didn't it?" Stan says as he gives the kid a hug. "You take your time, kid… you take your time remembering."

Dipper's head pops up an image of the two fishing in a small boat. The old man had taught him to properly fish, and even game him a compliment on how well he had done. Another image comes up of him being taught how to use a gun and how the two went hunting.

"Grunkle Stan…" Dipper tested the phrase out slowly. He then turns to see Ford. "And Great Uncle Ford… the author of the journals…" he scratches his head, wondering why he knew that.

Ford's eyes widened, surprised to see the kid remembering a few things. "Yes, Dipper. That's correct." He then looks at Dipper's face, a concerned look in his old features. "Do… you remember anything about Bill?"

"Bill?" Dipper questions. "Why, is he a friend of yours?" the name wasn't ringing any bells.

"No, far from it actually." Ford replies, a mental sigh of relief. He was hoping that he will never regain those memories. "But, never mind that. What else are you remembering…?" he takes out a small book, a journal, from his black trench coat and a pen, ready to take notes.

"Didn't we play 'Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons' together?" Dipper asks, a slight smile on his face as the image comes up of him and the old scientist with pointed ears a tunics. "And Grunkle Stan played too… to save us… and… someone else…" the image of a young girl with long brown hair looked fuzzy to him. "Huh…"

Mabel's heart dropped. He was remembering random memories with their grunkles but not with her? She then grabs the scrapbook that had the two of them exploring the woods of Gravity Falls, him in his red-orange shirt and navy blue vest with his pine tree hat. A tear falls onto the page, luckily there was protective plastic over the pages or they would've been ruined.

Dipper then looks back to her, seeing a new scrapbook. "What's that one?" he asks her, pointing at it.

"A scrapbook I made of us exploring the woods…" she replies, thinking to herself that he wouldn't remember anyway.

"We didn't find anything that day…" Dipper whispers. "I looked high and low as you took so many pictures… I was really upset until you showed me this… and I realized that I did have fun with… with you?" he looks at her again, once again not really recognizing her. "Mabel…? Right?"

Why did he keep forgetting her? He's remembering things that involved her, but when it came to Mabel herself he blanks out. No matter what pictures he saw of the two together laughing, or playing, posing, or even watching TV, he kept asking if that was her and that if her name was Mabel.

When he was walking around the Shack to see the other people, Soos came up to Dipper with an excited look on his face. "Hey, little dude!" Soos greets, making Dipper step back a few paces. "You remember me? Come on, you gotta remember me!"

"Pterodactyl bros…" Dipper then laughs. "We… went and helped to save Waddles… someone's pet pig."

"Mabel's pig." Soos tells him.

"Who?" Dipper cocks his head to the side.

"You're twin sister, dude." Soos tells him, concern in his eyes. Melody calls for him and he excuses himself to go by her.

Dipper gives a confused look, putting a hand to his head. Pacifica then taps him on the shoulder and he turns to see her bright green eyes. She gives a small smile, hoping that he remembers her, even in the slightest.

"Pacifica… Northwest…" Dipper says, snapping his fingers in excitement. He remembered her bullying someone… but then he remembered him being at the manor with her. However, when he snapped his fingers for some reason the image of a blue flame popped into his head. He ignores it as he sees the blonde's smile widen,

"That's correct, Dipper," she tells him. Her cheeks were flushed a slight pink. Was she blushing? "You go ahead and meet with the others, I'm going to talk to Mabel."

"Who is Mabel?" Dipper asks, looking around to see if he could find this person.

Pacifica's face pales. "You're twin sister…" she slowly says. "She's the one with the short brown hair and the pink circles on her cheeks. She is always wearing some sort of knitted sweater she made."

"Like… a shooting star sweater?" Dipper asks, a slight memory of that being made in front of him.

The blonde nods. "Yes, that's her iconic sweater. She's wearing it now." She then points at Mabel, who was sitting by herself at the top of the stairs. She then mutters something about talking to her later and walks off.

Dipper gives a small wave and ascends the stairs, taking a seat next to Mabel. He looks at her sweater, seeing the familiar pattern of the shooting star. It was so familiar to him… but who did he know that wore a shooting star sweater?

 _"Hey, Dip'n Dot!" a small girl had jumped in front of him, her long brown hair pulled back in a pink headband._

 _"What is it, Mabel?" a small replied, looking up from a book he was reading on the bed. He was wearing a green camo looking hat with a star in its center._

 _"Mom took me to the craft store and I got some yarn!" Mabel then holds up the bag of supplies. "Grandma said I should make a sweater… what design should I put on it, Dipper?"_

 _The young boy looks up from his reading once again. He glances to the one wall that decorated their room, it filled every white space with some sort of sticker, artwork, or posters. The reoccurring theme was a shooting star._

 _"Why not a shooting star?" he suggests as he points to a giant poster that Mabel had painted._

 _She gasps, "That's a great idea bro-bro!" She then sits next to him and began knitting, the two laughing and talking. She finally shows him the final product. "How does it look?" she asked._

 _"Like a Mabel original." Dipper smiles._

Dipper blinks as he looked at the girl sitting in front of him. A hot flash burns his head, remembering a blue light… him begging about something… her whispering that she was sorry. An image of him in a room seeing his grunkles and the girl in front of him.

 _Thank you, Mabel, for being my twin sister…_

Tears sprang into his eyes as he threw his arms around her, sobbing into her shoulder. "Oh my, God… Mabel… Mabel… my sister, my _twin_ sister!" he sobbed. "How could I forget you? How could I…?"

Mabel smiles, tears in her own eyes as she hugs her brother back. "Shhh, it's okay, Sir Dipping Sauce…" her voice was soft as it cracked, her hugging him tightly.

"I love you, Mabel… thank you for saving me… from what, I don't know and I don't want to know… but I know it was you that saved me…" his voice shook and his body trembled.

As she hugged him closer to her she whispers, "I love you too, Dipper… it was about time I repaid for all what you had done for me."

He pulls away from the embrace, a small smile on his dried bloody face. His brown eyes glistened with tears. He hold up his right hand, balled into a fist. "Mystery Twins?" he asks.

"Mystery Twins." Mabel echoes as her own hand went into a fist.

The two fist bumped, both with huge smiles on their faces.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** There is still another chapter because I hate leaving off on an odd number!

~Skye Hendersen~


	28. Chapter 28: Head into the Unknown

**Chapter 28: Head into the Unknown**

Three months had passed since that day, the day that Weirdmageddon finally ended.

The Pines family stayed in Gravity Falls, Oregon, as did many of the people of their large survivors group. They didn't want to travel anymore after being on the road for so long, it was nice to be in a nice stable place. The Pines rebuilt the Mystery Shack, bringing it back to its glory, the gift shop filled with its usual fake attractions.

It turned out that a lot of people survived Weirdmageddon, they were just good at hiding. Mabel's friends Grenda and Candy were up north in Canada with their families to stay safe, finally returning home to see their friend safe and sound. The other teenagers that Robbie and Wendy had hung out with had also been in hiding, traveling in Thompson's van fighting small demons. Wendy's younger brothers had been traveling separately with some of Manly Dan's lumber jack friends, to keep them safe while he had fought to get Wendy back

Gravity Falls was slowly turning back to normal, everyone trying to forget what had happened. Mayor Tyler had a memorial built in honor of some brave people that had given their lives trying to save the world from Weirdmageddon, one of the names being Bud Gleeful, which left Gideon teary-eyed.

There were a lot of orphaned children that were left with no family, no home to start anew in. Pacifica had cleaned up the manor and opened its doors to them, letting them live with her in the large manor. She also enlisted widowed wives, or women who lost their families to live there as well to help take care of the children, making both the children and the women happy. The Northwest name was starting to change, to be better than what Pacifica's parents had done with it before, making her smile to herself at how much she had changed.

The Gravity Falls schools decided to hold a reboot course so to speak, to help the kids who were traveling for so long catch up on school work. Ford had volunteered to be an instructor for the students to help them catch up, thanks to his vast knowledge. No kid complained, some kids, even Wendy, were glad to have something as normal as school come back. As kids caught up with school work, Dipper and Mabel had taken placement tests, them being considered higher in schooling than most of them.

"Told you books were a good thing," Dipper had told his sister when they had gotten their results back, referring to when he forced her to read some of his books during their travels.

Dipper had slowly been getting more of his memories back. He wrote them all down in a series of journals, just in case he had lapse he could refer to them again. So far he had no memory of Bill or Weirdmageddon at all, not even remembering any of the monsters he had fought. But once in a while if he saw blood he would just freeze and look at it, his face pale. He had remembered the little events of Weirdmageddon, such as reading all his books, the jokes Grunkle Stan made, the sweaters Mabel made him, and he remembered all his hunting trips. He had even remembered the conversation he had with Pacifica about their crushes on each other.

And Mabel and her grunkles couldn't be happier that Dipper remembered nothing of what Bill made him do.

He gained his weight back and his injuries were treated, the doctors of Gravity Falls returning or some new ones that wished to settle helping him. Looking at him you wouldn't believe that he had ever killed anyone.

Summer finally came, the warm air of Oregon was fresh and crisp. The younger and older twins explored the forest together as a family while Soos, Melody, and Wendy ran the shop. On the lake they all would go fishing on a new version of the Pines-O-War, the flag Mabel and Ford had designed flying proudly in the wind.

August came and was passing, a new school year coming up to where everyone was caught up in their schooling. Dipper and Mabel were going into their freshmen year of high school, going to Gravity Falls High, both excited and nervous at the same time. They were technically allowed to skip a grade or two because of their tests, but they decided to just progress normally.

The twins were finally turning fifteen, them holding a party at the Mystery Shack. As they blew out their candles, everyone cheered. George giving a kiss to Mabel, Stan giving the boy a threatening glare in the process, and Pacifica giving Dipper a hug and a peck on his cheek. Ford laughed at Stan's facial expression about Mabel's boyfriend kissing her, then him giving a wink and thumbs up to the blushing Dipper from his little romance.

The following week school was beginning to start, Dipper and Mabel standing in front of the large school. Dipper wore a nice blue shirt, his pine tree hat sitting proudly on his head, him wearing nicer jeans and black shoes. Mabel wore a summer dress that she sewed together herself, the dress a regal purple color, her traditional shooting star design in the center, and her wearing black flats.

George and Pacifica stood next to them, both dressed nicely for the occasion of starting a new school year. Pacifica wore a similar outfit to Mabel, but her dress a lovely sky blue with no design, and George wearing a green dress shirt with black dress pants.

The bell tolls, signaling that school was beginning. The four entered the building, being greeted by a series of cheers and whoops. Wendy and the gang was waiting for them in the main hallway of the school.

"Welcome to the hell known as High School!" Wendy cheers, her wearing a green flannel shirt with her lumberjack hat as usual. She gave a loud whoop and did a fist bump in the air.

"I'm glad to be back in school," Mabel says, something that she never had said before. "It feels… normal."

Dipper nods. "Agreed." He states as he nods his head.

"It's better than just sitting around doing nothing," Pacifica adds. "The world needs to move forward after what happened."

A crackle of static interrupts them overhead. "Welcome back to Gravity Falls High School. Please may the Pines Twins, Pacifica Northwest, George Grand, Wendy Corduroy, Gideon Gleeful, and Robbie Valentino please report to the gymnasium please?"

"Wow… first day of school and we are already being summoned somewhere?" Dipper questions, him giving an eye-roll.

"Well… we might as well find out, Dip'n Dot." Mabel says cheerily, giving Dipper a slug on his shoulder, causing him to move forward and his hat almost falls off.

The group slowly walks to the gym, them wondering why they are being summoned. They walked into the gym, the room with high ceilings and poor lighting, their shoes squeaking against the floor. Once inside they saw a large looking canvas on the west wall, it colored with the symbols from the wheel and added friends to the side.

"What's… going on?" Dipper questions slowly, seeing that a camera was set up and special lights to enhance photos.

Ford and Stan stood off to the side and once they saw the group they approached him. "Hello, kids." They both said in unison, something they rarely did.

"Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, what's going on?" Mabel asks them, her peering aroundthem to see the equipment.

"A photo," Ford says. "A photo for the yearbook." McGucket was then heard from the ceiling, everyone peering up to see him wandering on the panels. Soos was trying to convince the man to get down, but McGucket laughed. "Fiddleford… get down please, the kids are here." McGucket then drops down from a rope, a big smile on his face.

"Why a photo for the yearbook?" Pacifica then asks, her green eyes wide with curiosity.

"To mark the year of a new start," Stan then states. "I've had my fair share of many new starts, but today is going to mark a good one for the better. This photo is going to celebrate the heroes of the world."

"We're even sending a copy of the photo to the other schools that have opened up across the world." Ford continues. "A lot of people went into hiding to survive, so the death poll according to recent counts has only been about a million people… yes, that is a lot… unfortunately…" Ford then gets sad look across his face, something Dipper was confused about.

"We even got Manly Dan and Melody here as well, since they helped." Stan continues on for Ford, noticing his pause. "We're all a part of this… even… George." He glares at the dark blonde, the boy giving a sheepish smile and giving a little wave.

Ford shakes his head, getting rid of his thought of death. "Alright, everyone line up!" he calls out, gesturing for everyone to follow.

With a smile on their faces, Dipper and Mabel ran up to the canvas, seeing the other lining up as well. Stan and Ford stood in the back in the center, side by side, both draping an arm over the other's shoulders. Manly Dan stood to the far left next to Stan, Wendy in front of him, with his hand on her shoulder with Robbie standing next to her. Soos and Melody stood next to Ford, the couple holding hands with a huge smile on their faces, Gideon in front of them. McGucket places himself somehow behind and above Stan and Ford, the twins not even questioning it.

George stood behind Mabel, a little to the left in front of Stan, and Pacifica stood a little behind Dipper to the right. The twins were in the front and center, holding each other's hand like they had done for photos when they were younger.

"Alright, in a count of three say cheese!" the photographer calls out. Everyone gets into a position and gives huge smiles. "1…"

"Ready to head into the unknown?" Dipper asks his sister, his smile big and pure.

"2…"

"No," Mabel replies, smiling back. "But let's do it."

"3!"

The younger twins spread apart a little, only joined by their hands, as they made a pose, their free hands sticking straight up into the air. "La!" the two shouted, as they had done as children, with huge smiles as the flash from the lights momentarily blinded them.

The photo captured all their pure happiness, something they thought they wouldn't ever get again.

And together, they all headed into the unknown of the future.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** OMG IT HAS ENDED! I was tearing up at this... I'm such a sap...

But thank you, thank you all, for reading this. We all went on a journey together, our love of "Gravity Falls" making us feel so much. We all went through emotional rollercoasters during the show, and now through this fanfiction as well.

This was a joy to write, and I'm happy that so many people enjoyed it.

I'm going to write more, so stay tuned for eventual projects!

~Skye Hendersen~


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